Abstract
The stiffness of interfering bodies affects responses and design sensitivities of structures. Design sensitivity relations involving interference force due to the bodies are derived on the basis of thermoelasticity equations, and are modeled by thermal loads. As practical examples, a transfer press, which is commonly used in the automobile industries, is studied to investigate the effect of the interference force due to die stiffness. Misalignment and out-of-parallelism, which cause manufacturing error in a slide in the transfer press, are defined. Design sensitivity analysis is done for two different finite element models (with/without die stiffness). In contrast to earlier studies, it is found that the stiffness of interfering bodies has an effect on design sensitivities and should be considered in structural design of a transfer press. For future redesign of the transfer press, a few design recommendations will be provided.