7 Ways to Improve Mold and Die Design and Manufacturing

Overview

The mold and die industry has undergone wrenching changes in recent years, and the current tough economy is only adding to the challenge. As reported by Plastics News in a recent article, the American Mold Builders Association estimates that a prolonged shutdown by either GM or Chrysler could push 35% to 50% of their mold suppliers into bankruptcy1. Many are already teetering as payments have slowed and lines of credit have dried up.

Even before the economy soured, an explosion of new, low-cost competitors in emerging markets was moving the easiest projects offshore, leaving only the largest, most complex ones for North American suppliers. Now, as everyone scrambles for their share of a shrinking pie, pressures to improve product quality, reduce leadtime and lower costs only increase.
With constantly increasing competition from countries with low-cost labor, it is important for us to maintain our leading position in the market by using the best tools and machines available, and to automate our processes from design and tool construction to tool manufacturing. Hans Lauridsen, CEO, Techno-Tool

It may sound like a recipe for disaster, and for many companies it will be. But mold and die makers dont have to just sit back and take it. Those determined to fight back have powerful new technologies at

more complex mold and die projects faster, cheaper and at higher quality than ever before, increasing their chances of winning the business thats available.

Mold and die makers intent on surviving are rethinking everything. For those willing to break out of the thats how weve always done it paradigm, new technological solutions offer never-before-available ways to survive the current economic downturn and emerge with advantage as the economy recovers. By reliably delivering top-quality tooling quickly and cost effectively without sacrificing profit margins these technologies are proving to be the secret weapon of those in the know.

Rhoda Miel, Plastics News, Mold makers can minimize damage from potential GM or Chrysler bankruptcy, April 17, 2009

Techno-Tool

their disposal technologies that make it surprisingly easy to deliver

Meeting the challenge of survival

To survive in a difficult world, tooling manufacturers need to maximize automation and focus on added-value tasks that set them apart from the competition. To accomplish this, they need to capture, manage and leverage their intellectual know-how to differentiate their offering.

To improve competitiveness and business performance, innovation must occur across all areas of product, process and organization, and it must occur at unprecedented speed. Sequential processes and non-valueadd activities such as translating data from one application to the next are wasteful luxuries no tool and die maker can continue to indulge. With the right processes and systems in place, bidding, design, simulation/ analysis, NC manufacturing, quality control and production can overlap to a significant degree, and each concurrent process cuts costs and time previously wasted by sequential ways of working.

In todays environment, making your next mold as good as your last one isnt enough. Every mold must be better than the one that came before it. Tooling suppliers need to capture, share and re-use what they know, constantly building on their expertise for continuous improvement in their offering. Knowing what you know allows you to answer bids more quickly and accurately, protecting your bottom line. Standardizing that knowledge ensures that every design meets your companys exacting standards and is configured to the specific requirements of each individual customer without costly and timeconsuming manual verification.

Die Cad Group

With the increase in accuracy and quality of our designs, we have greatly decreased the time spent to identify undetected design errors. We estimate the reductions in check time, coupled with other savings, have reduced design cycles by 50-70%. Brett Ashba, Vice President, Die Cad Group

Manufacturing, too, must be right the first time, every time. Not only is it too expensive to correct late-cycle changes, but these late development changes can also negatively impact your committed delivery dates. Today, mold and die makers must know at the design stage that the tool will work exactly the way it should and, increasingly, they need to prove it to the customer early in the process.

7 Key success factors to thriving in todays tough competitive environment

If your company wants to be one of those that not only survives but thrives, focus on seven key success factors: 1. Eliminate the need for data translation by using a single environment for both mold surfacing and mold design Nearly all original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) design their products in a solid modeling environment. Most mold and die shops use the solid modeling environment to generate mold surface information, then translate the surface geometry to a wireframe tool to design the mold. Often an additional translation is required for CNC (Computer Numerical Controlled) programming. When the part or mold design changes, the geometry needs to be retranslated, and in many cases, tooling design and CNC programming steps need to be performed again as well.

Today, leading mold and die makers avoid these challenges by leveraging the same solid modeling environment used by most mold and die OEM customers to produce the mold surface geometry, design the mold tooling and produce the CNC program, eliminating
Having a single master model significantly reduces retranslation and rework.

the need for retranslation and rework. Utilizing a single master model for the design geometry, the de-

sign, mold tooling and CNC programming enable a moldmakers teams to work concurrently, which reduces project leadtime. The single master model approach also automatically propagates design changes from the part design to the mold design to the CNC program, ensuring mold quality and saving additional time.
By reducing or eliminatinig the need for hardcopy drawings on the shop floor, we minimize common misunderstandings between manufacturing and engineering teams. The designer, the planner, the NC programmer and the toolmaker all have the same view of the tool and can agree on details with each other easily. Jrgen Faller, Head of CAD/CAM Production, Lpple AG Using CATIA allowed us in our very first attempt to reduce the number of hours

Concours Mold

required to design a mold by 30%.

Lpple AG

Luigi Nicoletti, Engineering Manager, Concours Mold

2. Use knowledge templates to capture and reuse automated design standards Most mold companies use specialized moldmaking software applications that automate many of the routine design tasks and ensure adherence to customer standards. But these specialized programs do not offer the benefits of generalpurpose computer aided design (CAD) software, such as compatibility with part designs and powerful visualization and simulation capabilities.

Todays most competitive mold and die makers leverage general-purpose CAD software like Dassault Systmes CATIA for Mold and Die, to achieve the best of both worlds. By embedding their own company standards, their customers
Easily capture, share and reuse technical information using knowledge templates.

standards and their machine requirements into easily constructed, reusable templates, the mold designer can start with 80% of the work already

done. These templates include machine standards such as plates that are of the right size and material and have the required notches and tolerances to fit a particular press. By further customizing templates to create customer-specific versions and variations, users also ensure conformance to customer standards such as screw sizes, drill holes and clearances. Corporate standards are embedded in design rules to capture the intellectual capital of a mold and die company, allowing it to be reused and ensuring consistency both with the corporations standards and with the exacting standards of each individual customer.

3-D Solutions Design Service

We were able to create an extensive, intelligent database of parts and assemblies that greatly reduce the time required to design a stamping die.

Concours Mold

Corey Chamberlain, Founding Partner, 3-D Solutions Design Service

Luigi Nicoletti, Engineering Manager, Concours Mold

Pro Stampi

With CATIA Knowledgeware templates that are fully and easily configured, we now have more powerful capabilities and embedded design standards we just didnt get with our previous application.

By considerably reducing repetitive design work, we have shortened design time and can deliver our mold designs to customers faster.

Davide Cantarini, Owner, Pro Stampi

3. Visualize the proposed mold design as a rendered 3D solid model to present validation concerns prior to manufacturing

Traditional wireframe-based mold design software makes it difficult to visualize the design through the resulting maze of overlapping lines. The inability to visualize complex mold designs contributes to errors that might go unnoticed until the mold is under con
3D representation of open injection plastic mold with finished product.

struction, when it is costly to correct and most likely to cause delays.

In-the-know mold and die makers improve mold quality and prevent costly errors by deploying a solution that enables their designers to visualize the proposed mold design as a rendered 3D model that is much easier to understand than a wireframe. This makes it possible to correct errors at an early stage, avoiding expense and delays. Another advantage of building the mold as a 3D solid model is that customers can easily view the mold and understand its performance in the early stages of the design process, saving time and money by avoiding the need for expensive, late-cycle changes.

With CATIA, we can turn a vehicle part into the sun

Working in solids greatly improves the accuracy and

Die Cad Group Inc.

(virtually) and see whether or not the surface is math-

quality of our designs, reducing the time a die spends in check. Brett Ashba, Vice President, Die Cad Group Inc.

Lpple AG

ematically correct. Jrgen Faller,

Head of CAD/CAM Production,

Lpple AG

4. Simulate the performance of the mold or die prior to manufacturing Creating physical prototypes to test mold performance is costly, time consuming and runs the risk that errors will remain unresolved until the project is nearly complete, when the cost to correct and the chances of missing key delivery dates are high. Leading mold and die makers are going beyond visualization to virtually simulate the performance of the mold during the design phase.

Mechanical assembly constraints can be used to automatically generate the mechanisms required to simulate the motion of the mold and removal of the molded part. At any point in the design process, the mechanism can be viewed to validate, assess and change the product design. Mechanism motion definition is fully associative with the product design.
CATIA makes everyones job

The software also supports the creation of animated files, making it easy to assemble and maintain the mold. Clashes between components are automatically identified. This approach drastically reduces the need for physical prototypes and helps ensure a finished mold thats right the first time, every time. 5. Collaborate on design reviews The more minds a company can bring to bear on a challenge and

easier since we can visualize how the many small parts of a mold fit together.

TJ Moldes

Joaquim Silva, Product Developer, TJ Moldes

the earlier it can leverage them the faster it will arrive at the best possible solution. Todays leading mold and die makers are achieving this by leveraging design software that makes it possible for global communities to collaborate on design reviews over the Internet. They enable real-time visualization and review of the 3D product as it evolves, streamlining collaborative review and decision-making. Instant collaborative tools include chat, snapshot, co-review and co-design. Users can access contextual product and mold design and manufacturing information, identify other contributors and collaborate in real time. All review information is embedded in the product design information. These collaborative tools accelerate the upfront detection and resolution of design issues while enabling alternative design studies and improving decision-making on product changes. 6. Produce CNC programs direct from CAD model using intelligent templates

Our customers choose T.A.P.E. every time because they know they wont get a 2D drawing or hand sketch thats going to give them

T.A.P.E. Inc.

bogus data. Bud Mohrman, President, T.A.P.E. Inc.

Why waste time and resources translating design data for CNC programming when you can program direct from the same data used to design the mold? Top mold and die companies are gaining competitive advantage by leveraging best-in-class surface machining capabilities along with full associativity with the product and mold design. CNC programs can be produced directly from intelligent templates, dramatically reducing machining time.

CNC programming capabilities include a full set of high-end 2.5-, 3- and 5-axis milling and drilling operations and NURBS output for 5-axis machining. Surface machining quality is improved through accurate scallop calculation.
Example of CNC program produced directly from the milling process using intelligent templates.

Collisions can be detected easily through distance and band analysis. Automatic

detection and reworking of non-machined areas reduces cycle time. Accurate verification of the toolpath includes simulation of material removal and analysis of the remaining material.

7. Re-use existing designs for new quotes Quoting quickly and accurately is the key to winning business and

With the automation capabilities of CATIA V5,

Techno-Tool A/S

maintaining margins. Todays most winning toolmakers leverage a team collaboration environment that offers native access to virtual product information directly within the design environment.

NC programming time for simple parts has been reduced by 90%. Hans Lauridsen, CEO, Techno-Tool A/S

Eliminate collisions with advanced virtual preparation and simulation for machining.

Users can store, structure and secure product data information and quickly locate existing designs with similar characteristics, facilitating the reuse of existing assets. This makes it possible to respond faster to bid requests with more accurate bids and avoid making the same mistakes twice. Users can also create workflows to automate processes, such as engineering change orders.

Conclusion

The current business climate threatens the very existence of many mold and die companies. Companies that plan to survive and thrive into the foreseeable future are moving now to improve their business processes to increase quality, avoid errors and reduce costs. They are utilizing a single architecture for product design, mold tooling and manufacturing to eliminate duplicated effort, improve communications and reduce the potential for mistakes. Leveraging their valuable intellectual property by own standards into intelligent templates, mold and die companies can ensure every design meets their exacting standards and those of their customers. Companies that utilize this new approach are dramatically reducing the time needed to design and build new molds and reducing the number of issues that need to be addressed before manufacturing. As a result, they are gaining a competitive edge that will help them compete effectively regardless of economic conditions. For more information, please visit: www.3ds.com/catiaformoldanddie embedding hard-learned best practices, customer standards and their
With CATIA for Mold, we have reduced our design

Woojin High-Tec

time from one month to one week. Jae-Deck Shin, CEO, Woojin High-Tec

About Dassault Systmes As a world leader in 3D and Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) solutions, Dassault Systmes brings value to more than 100,000 customers in 80 countries. A pioneer in the 3D software market since 1981, Dassault Systmes develops and markets PLM application software and services that support industrial processes and provide a 3D vision of the entire lifecycle of products from conception to maintenance to recycling. The Dassault Systmes portfolio consists of CATIA for designing the virtual product - SolidWorks for 3D mechanical design - DELMIA for virtual production - SIMULIA for virtual testing - ENOVIA for global collaborative lifecycle management, and 3DVIA for online 3D lifelike experiences. Dassault Systmes shares are listed on Euronext Paris (#13065, DSY.PA) and Dassault Systmes ADRs may be traded on the US Over-The-Counter (OTC) market (DASTY). For more information, visit http://www.3ds.com

For additional information, contact us at: Dassault Systmes 900 Chelmsford Street, Lowell, Massachusetts 01851 978 442 2500 3DS.com

CATIA, DELMIA, ENOVIA, SIMULIA, SolidWorks and 3DVIA are registered trademarks of Dassault Systmes or its subsidiaries in the US and/or other countries.