The aim of this work is to present a quantitative evaluation of the benefits of applying the Single-Minute Exchange of Die (SMED) implemented in a shoe mold company. Based on the application of this methodology, we noticed that real gains were obtained with very little financial investment. The improvements observed in the sector were the reduction of set-up time by 60%, with an average set-up time of approximately 7 min, and an increase in the productive capacity of the sector by around 3%. There was a reduction in the incidence of errors in the machined parts due to the standardization of the processes performed by the operators. Among the advantages presented with the new system are reduced material exchange time, reduced time spent fine-tuning, less chance of errors during exchanges, improved product quality, greater reliability with respect to reduction of dissociation stocks and the flexibilization of the production system.

Nowadays, the search for more reliable and less fuel consumable structures for off shore applications leads to the development of modern materials selection and manufacturing methodologies. In this sense, Aluminum alloys has increasing for structural application due to lightweight, weldability and corrosion performance. This research aims to evaluate the influence of manufacturing process of 6063 aluminum alloy on corrosion behavior in seawater medium. After the combination of heat treatment and cold work variation, the materials were analyzed by microstructural and mechanical tests. The sample also were submitted to Potentiodynamic polarization analysis. The results prove the applicability of cold work process in order to elevate corrosion performance of 6063 aluminum alloys. This can be a low cost and time consumable, alternative to increase materials performance.

The achievement of varied metal alloys through the sintering of mixtures of elemental metallic powders can provide great flexibility of production of these alloys. The possibilities of controlling the composition and the resulting properties of the alloy are of great importance for metallurgy. Otherwise the alloys involving chromium offer many difficulties for their attainment through the process of powder metallurgy (PM). In the formation of alloys with chromium (Cr), an oxide layer that prevents the ideal contact between the particles is formed. Hence the need for researches that study sintering processes and that can solve this difficulty. With this objective, this paper presents a method to determine parameters and describe the sintering process of mixtures of the elemental metallic powders Fe-Cr and Fe-Cr-Ni, assessing the elements' diffusing capacity and the possible alternative composition of an alloy. The method used Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) associated with Energy Dispersive Spectrometry (EDS), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and Vickers microindentation hardness analysis (HV). For the microstructural characterization, we used optical microscopy (OM) and SEM. And EDS mapping was applied for the analysis of the elements' dispersion. •The method makes it possible to define the ideal sintering time to obtain a good diffusion of the mixtures of the metallic powders Fe-Cr.•With the method, it is possible to verify the dispersion of the powders and whether the microstructure generated is similar to the ones of prealloyed powders.•With the applied procedures, the conditions for the formation of Fe-Cr alloys can be obtained by mixing dissociated and diffusion-bonded elemental metallic powders.