Virtual Design for Assembly Improving the Product Design of a Two-Way Relief Valve

Design for Assembly is a strategy of design aimed at minimising product cost through design and process improvements. It led to a revolution in the manufacturing industry, resulting in reduced product costs, improved quality, shorter time to market, lower inventory, fewer suppliers and many other improvements. DFA is the method of design of the product for ease of assembly and in this context this paper presents an application of the strategy to a virtual case study represented by a two-way relief valve modelled by CAD. The aim of this paper was to test some DFA methods proposed by the literature and search for an efficient assembly of the virtual two-way relief valve reproduced by CAD, then verifying its assembly effectiveness. Some evaluation methods proposed by literature about the optimisation of design efficiency have been applied to the case study and this led to reconsider the design of some parts of the product. A final new design for the valve is proposed and the evaluation methods applied have been tested again on the new solution, in order to validate the results. A comparison between the original valve and the new version proposed by the authors has been made, in order both to check the feasibility of the new valve and in order to check the evaluation methods proposed.