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T
he automotive industry
shares a common goal to
reduce new car develop-
ment cycles from 48 - 60 months
to only 24 months. To help
achieve such a drastic reduction
in “time-to-market”, companies
Courtesy of DaimlerChrysler
have focused on cutting tooling
development time, which repre-
sents a large share of the total
product development cycle.
Draw-die development – the cre-
ation of binder and addendum sur-
face geometry for sheet-metal parts
– has represented a particularly
difficult challenge for automotive
manufacturers and suppliers to
reduce lead-time and tooling costs.
AUTO MANUFACTURERS TOOLING SUPPLIERS
Over the past year, 20 automo-
tive manufacturers and 20 leading Audi Germany Batz Spain
tooling suppliers in Europe, North BMW Germany Comau (UTS) Italy
America and Asia have all imple- DaimlerChrysler USA, Germany Christy Industries USA
mented a new software to address Fiat Italy EDAG Germany
this problem (see Figure 1). Ford USA Turkey Gestamp Spain
General Motors USA Karmann Germany
TRADITIONAL BINDER AND Honda USA Krupp Drauz Germany
ADDENDUM DESIGN PROBLEMS Iveco Italy Kuka Werkzeugbau Germany
Once the product design depart- Mitisubishi Japan Laepple Germany
ment finalises the design of a new Nisssan Japan Mayflower UK
sheet metal part, for example a Opel Germany Ogihara USA
deck-lid, fender, bracket or cross- PSA Peugeot Citroën France PCI France
member, it is released to the feasi- Renault France SAT (Stola) Italy
bility and tooling departments Saab Sweden Schuler Germany
who must then design an appro- Scania Sweden Superior Cam USA
priate stamping die to fabricate Skoda Czech Republic Swindon Pressings UK
the part. Subaru Japan Tecnisabadell Spain
The traditional approach is for Volvo Sweden Thyssen Nothelfer Germany
methods engineers and die design- VW Germany Tower Meleghy Germany
ers to create or “build” the Troy Design & Mfg USA
required binder and addendum
surfaces in a CAD system. tional CAD system is very time- Figure 1: 40 for small parts and structural com-
However, this method has three consuming. For typical automotive automotive and ponents, several days are required.
tooling companies
disadvantages: skin panels and large inner panels, engaged in driving
the average time required to com- down lead times 2. High cost
1. Long lead time plete a draw-die development and reducing cost Design modifications are expensive
Designing die faces in a conven- ranges between 1-2 weeks. Even to make in a CAD system.
Courtesy of BMW
more costly.
3. Low throughput
With a manual, CAD-based
approach, the die designer must wait
until the die surfaces are completed –
several days or weeks – before carry-
ing out virtual try-out simulations to The software reduces tooling development
check his designs for cracks, wrinkles
and other stamping criteria. It is far time through rapid parametric design of
more productive and cost-effective if
the die designer immediately tries die faces, and their immediate verification
out his die concepts, discards unfeasi-
ble designs early on, and concen- and optimisation with integrated stamping
trates on further developing only his
best design(s). simulation modules.
As a result of these drawbacks, sev-
eral automotive companies partici- for evaluating the feasibility of draw- • Determination of tip-angle
pated in a program to develop a faster, die developments and prototype • Filleting of sharp edges
more efficient and less costly method tools. Its three most important inno- (variable radii)
for die face design. vations are: • Filling of holes
• Fully parametric features, • Part modifications (morphing)
PARAMETRIC AND FULLY • Complete integration with virtual • Design of the fill surface between
INTEGRATED SOFTWARE try-out software modules, and double-attached parts
AutoForm-DieDesigner software is • An automatic optimiser. • Over-crowning
the result of a development effort • Binder design
led by AutoForm Engineering The software’s parametric • Design of outer (and if required,
GmbH (developers of sheet metal approach is based on analytical engi- inner) addendum
forming software) in cooperation neering principles. It also conforms to • Unfolding of flanges
with tooling departments at BMW the die engineering practice of using • Generation of the tools
and Audi, and with technical feed- surface profiles (arcs and angles) to
back from DaimlerChrysler and design die faces and is compatible As all the generated die surfaces
General Motors. with various CAD data formats. are parametric, subsequent modifica-
The software reduces tooling tions (die engineering changes) are
development time through rapid DIE FACES COMPLETE DRAW-DIE implemented in seconds. These die
parametric design of die faces, and DEVELOPMENTS IN ONE HOUR surfaces and simulation results can
their immediate verification and Using the software, it takes about one easily be exported using IGES,
optimisation with integrated stamp- hour to design the complete die faces VDAFS or mesh formats to other
ing simulation modules. starting from only the CAD surface software applications, e.g. pattern-
It is specialised for generating data of the part. This includes the fol- making, structural/crash analysis
binder and addendum surfaces, and lowing steps: modules, etc.
Courtesy of Audi
for a specific part, one can then
replace that part with another (sim-
ilar) part designwith a modified
design and the software will auto-
matically adjust the binder and Figure 2-A: The part geometry (CAD surfaces) of an Audi TT rear fender.
addendum accordingly.
This is an important time-sav-
ing feature as it allows the original
addendum and binder geometry
that is created, to be re-used for
future design revisions of the part.
In addition, automatic filleting
and the ability to vary fillet radii
on the part geometry, saves con-
siderable time and allows virtual
try-outs to be carried out earlier in
the product and tooling develop-
ment cycles.
.
DIRECT PARAMETRIC LINK TO
STAMPING SIMULATION
SOFTWARE
Figure 2-B: The initial binder surface (yellow) automatically created in a few seconds, using
As a result of the software’s inte- only the CAD surface data in Figure 2-A as input. The user can then modify the binder
grated system approach and full geometry with surface profiles.
parametric linking, all die face
designs can be immediately evalu-
ated with one-step or incremental
simulation modules.
One-step simulation results are
considerably more reliable when
based on the complete die face – as
generated by the software – rather
than on the part only. An added
benefit is that these refined results
are made possible earlier in the
design cycle. They are available
within a few minutes and include
the required blank outline and var-
ious stamping feasibility criteria
(see Figure 5).
The incremental module is used
Figure 2-C: View of the automatically generated addendum surface (red), based on default
for high accuracy and virtual try-outs profiles.
of the complete stamping process.
Results include predictions of wrin-
kles, cracks, skid and impact lines, Additional try-outs can be various tool geometries required
surface quality, etc. Incremental try- launched at once because of para- for the next simulations are auto-
out results are typically available metric linking. For example, matically updated. Similarly, if
within 1 hour to 3 hours, depending based on the initial results, the the user modifies the punch open-
on the size and complexity of the user can make modifications to ing line, drawbead positions are
part and the desired accuracy. the addendum geometry, and the automatically adjusted.
Figure 3-A: A typical addendum profile (red line) and its defining parameters. Within a few
seconds, the user can change these “master” global profile parameters, for example to
increase the die radius.
In addition, the user can also make local surface modifications to the addendum, by
changing local profile parameters or directly manipulating contours such as the punch Figure 4: The complete die face for the Audi TT rear fender, created
opening line, bar height, etc. in about 1 hour using 28 customised surface profiles.
ONE-STEP FORMABILITY
SIMULATION
Figure 5: The results of a one-step
simulation taking into account the binder
and addendum from Figure 4.
The stamping feasibility results were
calculated in 2 minutes. The colour plot
shows a summary of various stamping
feasibility criteria. The circled area on the
left shows a risk of wrinkles on the
addendum, very near to the part boundary.
The circled area on the right shows a
crack.
Based on one-step results, the general
die concept can be evaluated early in the
design cycle, and if necessary,
modifications to the part geometry can be
recommended. Furthermore, the resulting
blank outline can be used to design the
initial blank outline for an incremental
virtual try-out.