Augmentation of Learning Through The Use of Simulation Tools & Techniques in Under-Graduate Metal Forming Course

Experiential/activity based learning is the process of learning through doing an activity and is thought to be useful to increase the retention of theoretical concepts and will help in bridging the gap between theory and practice. The inspiration for this work is the fact that learning can be fruitful only when the class-room theoretical concepts are visualized/experienced through laboratory practice and is the essence of experiential/activity based learning teaching practices. The attempt has been made to bridge the gap between theory and real-time industry practices by means of open ended activity learning for the undergraduate course of V-semester Manufacturing Technology- Metal Forming. In today's era numerical simulation as a component of the virtual manufacturing concept of sheet metal forming has emerged as one of the important processes in manufacturing technology. This has resulted in reduced lead time and increased product quality. To inculcate these concepts to the students for a better understanding, a metal forming simulation software has been incorporated as part of this activity. Here student groups identified the sheet metal components (which included the sheet metal forming operations like shearing, bending, deep-drawing, etc.). They carried the design, modeling, simulation, analysis and interpreted the results. This activity not only helped students to get acquainted with the design process, but also lead to better understanding of class-room theoretical concepts. A close resemblance is experienced by students between the simulation results and theoretical calculation which resulted in cognitive and synergic atmosphere for learning among the students and by this the outcome b-"Ability to design and perform laboratory experiments for manufacturing & allied systems as well as to analyze and interpret data" of ABET 3b has been achieved.