FINITE ELEMENT EVALUATION AND OPTIMIZATION OF GEOMETRY WITH DOE

Since 1960, Taguchi methods have been used for improving the quality of Japanese products with great success. Basic assumption of Taguchi's design for six sigma or robust design is that quality must be designed into a product from the start at both the product and process design stage in order to improve product reliability and manufacturability. This paper deals with case study of product design based on Taguchi's approach that involves parametric optimization of piston rod geometry aiming mass reduction with stress restriction. Finite element analysis software ANSYS Workbench was used to get access to CAD parameters of piston rod within a process of parametric finite element evaluation and optimization.