ECONOMIC EVALUATION OF THE REPLACEMENT PROCESS OF CASTING BY POWDER TECHNOLOGY APPLIED TO THE PRINTER MECHANISM

Abstract

This work presents a study of the application of new manufacturing processes and the use of new materials for the production of a component of print heads employed in dot matrix printers manufactured by industry. The manufacturer employs a ferromagnetic component produced by casting, which has many steps of manufacturing until the final assembly. During these steps, there is a high rejection rate of parts. The development of a new production process of the ferromagnetic component by powder metallurgy, with the employment of other ferromagnetic alloys and a new geometric model are extremely important to reduce costs of manufacturing. The study involves the production and the evaluation of the performance of samples of ferromagnetic alloys obtained by the powder metallurgy process and the comparison of the results with those generated by samples produced by the process of casting. The replacement of the manufacturing process will propitiate to the manufacturer a reduction of about 36% in manufacturing costs, allowing a more competitive marketing. Keywords: Powder metallurgy; dot-matrix print head; ferromagnetic alloy; manufacturing costs.