Fuel Tank for Production

One of the hardest things about design is when you have to actually make it! Design for manufacture (DFM) is the process of redesigning a concept into something that can be manufactured. This is the process the VUM team has been dealing with over the last couple of months for the fuel tank.
We have had a general form since January, but it really has only been since the August when the realisation came that the team is going to have to out source production. As with any out sourced task communication is the key to successful outcome. The call outs were made and we started chatting with a custom fuel tank manufacturer in QLD,  he provided tips and suggested processes to use. One of the major changes we had to make to the general form was to redesign the pattern so it could be folded out of 5000 series aluminum. Considerable amount of time was spend considering where the fold lines should be and how the individual parts should be joint (TIG welded).

Alloy Fuel Tank_VUM14_04092015

The follow link is to a zipped file to the Solidwork 2014 fuel tank CAD Files and Mechanical Drawings for Production 07/09/2015:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BzvDCEcFLEusU0JaM2JvZklnaTg/view?usp=sharing

Below is an embedded video of the fuel tank simulating the intended method of folding before welding: