There is a remaining need from both academia and practitioners, to gainfurther knowledge about the decision making process for automation of low volumeproduction. This paper includes insights of drivers for automation, the developmentof a guide for low volume production and the outcome of using the guide. Theresearch in this study is based on both empirical data and theoretical considerations.The empirical data was collected in five case studies and a questionnaire. This paperis part of a research project with the main objective to develop knowledge about howflexible automation may contribute to improvements in efficiency, ergonomics,quality and production economics in different industries with low volumeproduction. One of the results in the project was a comprehensive guide, developed,refined and improved in an iterative collaborative process, where tools and parts ofthe guide were tested and verified by five manufacturing case companies. The paperdescribes briefly the development process of the guide and content. The requirementsof the guide derived from literature, case companies, questionnaire as well asindustrial experts. The resulting guide can be used in several ways, depending on therequirements of the application. The guide includes guiding principles, a decisionmodel for the analysis of the company, choice of automation and facts aboutautomation. In the end of the project, four companies had invested or decided toinvest in different types of automation. 

This review gives a concise introduction to the state-of-art techniques used for surface texturing, e.g., wet etching, plasma etching, laser surface texturing (LST), 3D printing, etc. In order to fabricate deterministic textures with the desired geometric structures and scales, the innovative texturing technologies are developed and extended. Such texturing technology is an emerging frontier with revolutionary impact in industrial and scientific fields. With the help of the latest fabrication technologies, surface textures are scaling down and more complex deterministic patterns may be fabricated with desired functions, e.g., lotus effect (hydrophobic), gecko feet (adhesive), haptic tactile, etc. The objective of this review is to explore the surface texturing technology and its contributions to the applications. © 2016, The author(s).

Big social benefits can be attained through increased use of stainless steel or titanium in new sheet metal applications. Unfortunately, forming of these materials is often a challenging and costly operation, that can lead to environmental and health problems when solving the technical limitations. One possible method to overcome these problems is to use an oxide layer with optimised properties to reduce friction during forming, either as a substitute to lubricants, or acting as a conversion layer for environmental friendly lubricants. The most beneficial group of oxides for low friction is called lubricious oxides with a rutile crystal structure. Oxides of Ti, Mo, V, and Zn can build rutiles under certain contact temperatures during rolling and forming. The aim of this investigation is to evaluate if oxides designed on metal sheets display a lubricious effect under conditions similar to industrial forming processes. Preliminary evaluations show a beneficial influence of two oxides types, on stainless steel and on titanium. More work is needed to test the lubricating effect in other forming operations and to analyse the sustainability aspects for products manufactured with this alternative surface.

For producers of advanced stainless components the choice of stainless material influences not only the product properties, but also the tooling solution for sheet metal stamping. This work describes how forming and punching tools will be affected when introducing the stainless alloys ferritic EN1.4509 and lean duplex EN1.4162 in a production designed for austenitic stainless steels, such as EN1.4301 and 1.4401. The result is a guideline that summarizes how stainless material properties may affect tool degradation, and suggests tool solutions for reduced production disturbances and tool maintenance cost.

The determination of the flow stress curve at room temperature, using the bulge test under biaxial deformation conditions, has been extensively studied. However, two Issues still deserve close examination: (1) validity of assuming a spherical bulge shape and (2) the effects of yield criterion and/or normal anisotropy. In this paper, we present experimental measurements to validate spherical assumption, as well as a methodology to calculate flow stress curves, all the way up to the failure point, that are free from the effects of anisotropy. Experimental studies were conducted on draw quality steel (DQS) and several grades of Dual Phase (DP) Advanced High Strength Steels (AHSS). © 2011 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA. Weinheim.