INTRODUCTION
What is a tool engineer? Since the advent of modern mass production a new field in engineering has become more and more apparent. Today it has attained a professional recognition comparable to that of older fields in engineering. This new field is called tool engineering.
THE DEVELOPMENT OF TOOL ENGINEER
Modern mass production dates from the first decade of this century. It replaced the long established factory system, which was a mere massing of men and tools with little emphasis on planning and engineering principles. At first, this new system caused bitter social and political hostility but it’s basic worth was soon recognized. This led to an efficient movement in industries and time-study and similar methods became prominent.
This new field is essential in metalworking industries, such as automobile and aircraft manufacture. It is also important in industries that manufacture plastics and textile goods, and other non-metal products. Furthermore, mass production is no longer necessary for its application. Now in moderate production good use can be made of the methods of tool engineering. In fact, different branches of industry are constantly applying these methods for better efficiency and greater profit.
In this age of specialization, the tool engineer has broad and vital duties, although tool engineer is considered a specialist. Their importance makes them a respected member of the engineering profession. Most significantly, the field of tool engineering is never static. It is constantly improving and the tool engineer must grow with it or risk becoming a liability.
TODAY’S TOOL ENGINEER
According to Webster’s New International Dictionary, second edition, tool engineer is ‘ a division of industrial engineer whose function is to plan the processes of manufacture, develop the tools and machines, and also integrate the facilities required for producing given products with minimal expenditure of time, labor and materials’.
This definition was interpreted at through consultation of the dictionary’s editors with officials of the American society of Tool Engineers, an organization founded in 1932. There are three basic parts that require expansion and they are;
- Planning the processes of manufacture.
i. Studying the design of the products with a view toward improving the product’s economical manufacture.
ii. Determining the most suitable materials for the product.
iii. Roughly developing the best arrangement of equipment and sequence of operations for efficient processing the product.
iv. Estimating the rough costs of materials, tools, machines, and production techniques, and holding them to a minimum level.
- Developing the tools and machines.
i. Determining if machines and tools on hand can be used or adapted for efficient processing of the products.
ii. Adapting those machines and tools found usable.
iii. Designing new machines and tools as necessary for the job.
iv. Investigating the market for machines and tools necessary to the job and purchasing them.
- Integrating the facilities required for producing given products with minimal expenditure of time, labor, and materials.
i. Developing detailed arrangements and sequence of operations.
ii. Scheduling rate of production and significant dates, including starting and completion dates.
iii. Making route sheets that completely describe the sequence of operations and desired flow of work.
iv. Making operator instructions sheets that completely describe the steps of operation of each machine.
v. Assembling bills of material that give all the information necessary for purchasing or drawing from stock.
Even though the duties listed as above are in the realm of tool engineering, they overlap into other fields as well. Product engineering, machine, tool, and gage designing, metallurgical engineering, cost accounting, purchasing, plant layout and methods engineering are all distinct activities in quantity manufacturing, yet the tool engineer has a hand in each. They must therefore have a working knowledge in other fields, especially in plant layout and applied mechanics, besides having a thorough background in the design of tools, machines, and other production equipment, and their many applications.
TOOL ENGINEER’S DUTIES
From Design to Finished Products
At this point, a brief narrative of the tool engineer’s duties is necessary to show his relationship with others in production and to emphasis their overall importance.
An idea of a product is conceived and presented to the product engineer, who designs a product based on the idea. The idea may come from a member of the sales force, engineering staff, and production department or from any responsible source. Arriving at decision as to whether the proposed product has a market is a subject in itself. Surveys of the public usually conducted and information gathered concerning competitive products, existing patents, and any available technical data. Even at this stage, tool engineer may be brought in for technical advice.
The design of products nowadays entails a great amount of research and development. During the latter stages of development, the tool engineer is usually consulted. After studying the design of the product, tool engineer may suggest changes to promote a more economical manufacture, for instance, standardizing hole dimension or gear size. Tool engineer may also advise that manufacture of the product would not be wise, due to excessive production costs.
This conclusion is based on a rough estimate of such costs as tools, machines and other production equipments including raw materials. Also involved is a rough layout (on paper) of the best equipment arrangement and sequence of operations. With the help of the plant layout engineer, methods engineer, and others, an experienced tool engineer can readily collect the data on which to make this decision.
Providing the Equipments
Once a product is designed and considered economically or manufacture, the tool engineer must provide the tools and machine equipment to process it. This phase of production is crucial and complex. Two major factors affect tool engineer’s judgments are, the ultimate total volume of the product and its quality in the sense that the degree of tolerance and grade of materials desired. By knowing the volume and quality of the products, tool engineer can decide whether or not new machinery and tools better suited for production that what the tool engineer has been constructed to do.
For instance, high volume requirements would mean that the tool engineer could purchase comparatively expensive equipments which would process the products more efficiently and economically in the long run than his their own equipments. In the other hand, if high quality is also required, probably the tool engineer would decide that they must adapt the tools and machines at their disposal to keep overall production economically. Tool engineer’s next problem then would be to adapt their equipments to meet the high quality requirements. If the tool engineer fail to do this, they are forced to purchase what they need.
However, no outside source may be able to meet their specifications and they must draw up plans for the manufacture of new design equipments. Sometimes, tool engineer might not find an outside source to build their new design equipments. So, they must do with what they have by making arrangement and modification. Many other problems arise during this phase of production that requires the tool engineer to bring all their experience and knowledge into play.
Planning the Final Phase
After the necessary equipments have been provided, the final phase of production planning begins. Adequate floor space, lighting, and power are allotted. A detailed arrangement of machinery and sequence of operations is established and the equipments installed. Here, the tool engineer works with the process engineer. Their chief aim is to build in coordination so that neither time nor manpower is wasted. Working plans, bills of material, operator instruction sheets, route sheets, and many more are drawn up and distributed. Men are selected and if necessary will be given training.
Actual production can commence when the raw material for the product, and all other needed materials, are on hand. The tool engineer’s duty now is to follow up on their work, making changes wherever he sees room for improvement, until they are really satisfied.
Equipments Selection
All equipment used in the manufacture of a product is called production equipment. Power-driven machinery is an outstanding example of production equipment.
Idea for product
Finished product Processing the product Developing and selecting the production equipment
Figure 1. Operations flow from the initial idea to the finished product.
Tools are called production equipments. Besides machine tools, they include jigs, fixtures, patterns, moulds, dies, cutting tools, tool holders, checking fixtures, gages, and a number of small auxiliary tools necessary for a complete tooling-up operations. Materials handling equipment, such as hand trucks, cranes, hoists, and conveyors are also classified as production equipments. Development of machines and tools is based initially on product volume and product quality desired. When these factors are decided upon-usually by management and a range of equipments, based on cost and general performance is thereby determined, selection of equipments within this range can be made.
Influencing Factors for Tools Selection
The following considerations greatly affect any decision the tool engineer makes. They are stated as below,
1. Sufficient production capacity. In the context of power driven machinery especially, careful study of setup, loading, and cycling time is indicated.
2. The best possible way of operation. In other words, the equipment must be as simple and functional as it can be, with only minimum moving parts.
3. Providing necessary accuracy. The product must meet the required tolerances by the product engineer.
4. Acceptable depreciation and upkeep costs
5. Adaptability for future processing of products with a different design. .
6. Requirement of a minimum labor, especially skilled labor. For many applications nowadays, machines are sought that have a maximum number of automatic devices, which reduce the chance of human error.
Concession of Tool Engineer
Sometimes tool engineers are not able to purchase or adapt production equipment to suit their entire initial requirement. They must always be prepared to make concessions. A detailed analysis will usually show what requirements can be overlooked without seriously raising the overall cost or threatening the quality of the product. Since there is a host of variables involved, a good tool engineer must exercise careful judgment and, again rely on their knowledge and experiences.
TOOL ENGINEER’S APPROACH
Empirical Versus Analytical Approach
The emergence of tool engineering as a field into itself implies the use of exact methods in solving problems within its field. The passage of time and division of job responsibility will tend to cause the development of exact methods. In the early years of mass production, shop supervisors, tool room foreman, master mechanics, and acted like tool engineer, as a matter of course. In general, what they accomplished did not call as tool engineering and also did not recognize their collateral work could be approached anilitycally. In that respect, they were not tool engineer.
As a result of production planning was often incomplete, inexact, and devious, especially as compared to present standard. Coordination among the various shops and on the assembly line itself was often less than smooth, with much wasted motion and loss of time. This inefficiency and lost of time meant rising costs. We must remember, however, that thirty to forty years ago total quantities produced weren’t so great, nor labor so costly, as they are presently. More, men in industry then did not have the means at their disposal to measure and compare with a view towards their production equipments and processes.
Recognition of Planning and Analysis
When problems arose in tool engineering before it became a distinct field, the men involved would rely on their experience and knowledge in their own specialties to solve problems. Even though sometimes these solutions weren’t excellent, often they were makeshift, and good solutions weren’t recorded in detail. As time passes, these all will change. Slowly, the values of careful planning and analysis were recognized. It became economical to do what tool engineer proposed. They presented figures and plans that clearly showed why one production process or machine was better than another for manufacturing the product under considerations. Tool engineer reduced guesswork to a minimum and removed most of the gamble in production planning. When management found that they could even improve the quality of the product with no increase in cost, tool engineering was here to stay.
Naturally we are indebted to the pioneers in tool engineering for advancing the analytical approach to quantity production. Today, however the tool engineer has not abandoned the empirical approach. Sometimes it is more advantageous for tool engineer to experiment than analyze. As for an example, when adapting their production equipment it might prove simpler to try various setups than work them out on a drawing board.
Since tool engineering is comparatively new, any gaps in analytical methods must be bridged by using empirical methods. Also, there may be some production problems where solution by detailed planning and analysis isn’t warranted. An approximate solution by practical methods might be more satisfactory. Cost is usually the reason, since more expense is involved in conducting the analytical method.
Combination of Analytical and Empirical
Today, the wise tool engineer combines the analytical approach with the empirical. Always, they strive to manufacture their product to be quantity required as economically as possible without endangering its quality. By whatever means, this manufacture can best be accomplished, is the duty of tool engineer.
SUMMARY
Tool engineering is classified under mechanical engineering as a whole. It is one of the most important fields which make that particular person to be known as a tool engineer. Nowadays, the development of tool engineer is increasing radically. More and more machinery are invented each days to improve the productivity and also to ease human work. So, the presence of tool engineer made these developments a reality. Even though the title given to the engineer is specifically as a ‘tool engineer’, it does not mean that they are only involved with tools and machines.
What lies beyond the title ‘tool engineer’ is more that what we could have expected. As mentioned above, the work of a tool engineer is not a one man job, but dramatically the burdens are carried by a single person. It is the same person who carries out multi task job with full responsibility and this is what made them the respected person among all. Lastly, engineers are the one who becoming the backbones of a country.
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