Design for Assembly
DFA
Goals of DFA
• Simplify product and assembly to
– Save money
– Improve quality
– Improve reliability
Product Design for Manufacture and Assembly
Boothroyd, Dewhurst, and Knight
Product Design for Manufacture and Assembly
Boothroyd, Dewhurst, and Knight
Formal Techniques
• Boothroyd-Dewhurst [Link]
• Lucas
• Hitachi AEM
Boothroyd-Dewhurst
• First: Three main questions to see if parts
are essential
– Does the part move relative to other parts?
– Must the part be a different material or
isolated from other parts?
– Must the part be separate to allow assembly?
Boothroyd-Dewhurst
• Examine the handling and insertion of
each part and rate factors such as
– Assembly time
– Assembly cost
Lucas Method
• Point scale which gives relative measures
of assembly difficulty in the form of
– Design efficiency
– Feeding/handling ratio
– Fitting ratio
Cummins
Example Staple Remover
[Link]
One rivet – saves two parts and
two operations.
[Link]
r_mini_staple_remover_.[Link]
No Rivets – How is this done?
[Link]
hotos/0000/0001/3920/red_staple_remover_large.jpg
Fewest Parts
[Link]
Design Variants – Does Fewest parts
always produce the Best design?
General Electric
Bralla
Bralla
Bralla
Bralla
Bralla
Bralla
When possible, avoid using countersunk screws for fastening
(a). Any lateral (e.g. center-distance) or angular misalignment
stresses the screw and changes Its height relative to the part
surface. Square-shouldered heads located in oversize
counterbores (b) are preferable.
Stock Drive Products
[Link]
Bralla
Bralla
Avoiding Overspecification Of Dimensions Of Mating Parts
The axial position of the bushing relative
to the housing is overdetermined in (a).
A one diameter hole, (b), eliminates this
drawback.
Stock Drive Products
[Link]
Stock Drive Products
[Link]
Product Design for Manufacture and Assembly
Boothroyd, Dewhurst, and Knight
Long shafts and bushings are easier to assemble with a two-
diameter construction. In such cases avoid having to match
counterbore depth with the length of the reduced-diameter portion
of the shaft (a). The depth of the counterbore should be slightly
less than the length of the reduced-diameter portion of the shaft.
Stock Drive Products
[Link]
Design For Accessibility
In an assembly in which the bolt head is not readily accessible (a), an
access hole for a wrench Is provided in design (b) or-better still-the
bolt can be replaced by readily assembled threaded pins (c).
Similarly a nut and bolt (a) should be located for easy accessibility as
in (b) for tubular or Allen wrenches (the latter for a hexagonal socket
head).
Stock Drive Products
[Link]
Product Design for Manufacture and Assembly
Boothroyd, Dewhurst, and Knight
Design For Ease Of Disassembly.
When using dowel pins for alignment, avoid blind
holes (a). The addition of a small-diameter exit hole
(b) permits Introducing a punch for extracting the
dowel pin. Better still, if possible, use a one-
diameter bore (c); and if one part is too long for
easy extraction, increase the diameter of the
clearance hole (d), which does not require close
tolerances.
Stock Drive Products
[Link]
Product Design for Manufacture and Assembly
Boothroyd, Dewhurst, and Knight
