Foundry casting moulds,
Manufacturing Industrial moulds,
Manufacturing Metal moulds - for working plastics, rubber,
glass,
Manufacturing Moulds, industrial, manufacturing
Moulds for forming materials - plastics, rubber, glass,
Manufacturing Moulds for metal casting
Nowadays the crucial problem in the development of new
products is to reduce the time necessary for their design
and manufacture while sustaining high quality and minimum
development cost. To attain this record requires experts
from a number of different fields as well as from services
and suppliers.
The
computer aided tools (CAD & 3D modeling) methods
are widely used for the design of moulds. These methods
are capable to create and handle technical documents,
drawings; part lists, manufacturing control programs.
The requirements connected to the flexible manufacturing,
the improved quality requirements need such information,
which is relevant, the geometric model. There are several
possibilities to extract this information from the geometric
model like the feature-based methods.
The basic geometric model can be used in mould design
and in process planning of mould making, and the model
is also suitable for using in the rapid prototyping and
rapid tooling methods.
These models should be extracted from the classical
geometric 3D model using featured based selection to
describe not only the elements of the mould but the interconnections
between them. |
The practice accumulated in moulds making can serve solving
and describing tasks.
On the base of practice of the participants the new information
and communication technology connected to the new business
processes and collaborative project should optimize the
progress.
The overall design process must be well coordinated
and integrated in Concurrent Engineering methods.
Concurrent engineering is an essential approach in obtaining
improved time to market in new product development. However,
even as the use of design teams is achieving great success,
there is a need for the use of software tools, which
support the design process to be radically improved.
Some aspects are illustrated in the following topics:
1. The mould will be manufactured only for experimentation
and will not be sold, or few pieces should be produced
- Such moulds often should be made with softer materials,
the plastic parts removed manually and/or the mould containing
only one cavity in what will eventually be a multi-cavity
mould. This process is right recommended for Rapid Tooling
new processes.
2. The mould will be manufactured with a new material
- It's seriously recommended to apply new software simulation
analysis before manufacturing. |
3.
The mould will be manufactured with special mechanisms
or instrumentation – The
simulation software tools can save costs, reduce risks
and improve functionalities.
4.
The mould will be manufactured using new tooling methods,
or it is complex
and involves many mould functions.
It is not certain that the mould will function as intended. – The
previous application of software simulation tools will
improve analysis and decision-making.
5.
The mould will be employed with a new resin system
that presents special
requirements - Simulation tool
software are essential and could simulate all states
and special needs as temperature, pressure, etc…
6.
The mould will be manufactured to produce a part that,
even if made as
designed, may not function as intended – Rapid
Tooling is the most probable solution, reducing costs
and risks.
7.
Some aspect of the job is technically unique, for example
there might
be a small unique feature on an otherwise
standard mould – Simulation tools should be able
to determine all risks and imperfections of the new device.
8.
The geometry of the mould is significantly different
from any other
mould that has been manufactured before – Regardless
of any configuration should be analyzed and conclusively
decision-support using simulation software tools. |
Recently the mold tool,
and die industry has become progressively more competitive
worldwide.
Considerable pressure to decrease development time and
production costs on the tool and die manufacturers, reduce
time-to-market of the product, and finally, increase
product quality emerged from clients worldwide.
The industry in developed countries focus on working on pieces that are highly
value added in nature required by competition from developing countries.
Simulations allow the designer to develop precisely moulds tool designs, improving
and optimizing the tooling. Optimizing designs allow using a minimum of material,
resulting in reduced production costs.
Mould tools manufacturers use software analysis or simulation
tools to react to each of these requirements, enabling
to manufacture parts that were previously too difficult
to fabricate.
Prototypes and computer simulations decreases the cost and time to market.
Optimized tooling tends to achieve longevity, further reducing production costs,
fewer tooling will be manufactured and reduced production failures.
The new design methods for the mould tools, and die
industry is proven to be effective in design work, the
process is optimal and cost effective, using analysis
software in the design process provide the following
advantages:
|
¤Reduction
in Time-to-Market
Creating
and testing physical prototypes can be is a fast,
low-cost and reliable process. Some
products can use computer simulations that take
far less time.
Running software for analyses and validating designs also leads to a
reduced probability of product failure late in
the design cycle, or lead-time which
can result in significant optimization.
¤Design
verification/validation
Simulation
and rapid prototyping can determine whether the
design works. The 3D animations of
simulations allow seeing how the tool and dies
will shape
and form the working material in real life, as well as the own resulting
products.
¤Improving
Product Quality
Analysis
allows a designer without difficulty test various
geometry/ flexibility / elasticity/ temperature
/ friction / material variants before production,
something that would also be logistically possible using prototypes.
These
technologies result in an optimal design, which leads to higher product
quality.
New concepts producing prototypes or only simulating can provide a radical
testing and a proof of concept.
¤ Durability
and reliability
Software analysis can provide failure and longevity
analysis of tooling and dies and is normally integrated
with all major CAD systems and is directly
integrated with the modeling systems, the standard for 3D design.
|
This
means that engineers can use analysis software
directly on the CAD model and do
not need to remodel designs to take advantage of analysis technology.
Designing tooling and dies presents unique engineering challenges, the
problem to find the optimal solution, the solution that uses a minimum
of material,
generate a minimum amount of defects, and has the greatest longevity.
¤ Reduction
in Development Costs.
Using
analysis software allows for running simulations
with many different iterations of material, tool
geometry, forces, and temperature rapidly, regardless
of the application is forging, stamping, extrusions, molds, or any other
mold/tool/die application.
This is something that is currently available or logistically feasible
using physical prototypes, depending on the application and specifications.
Evaluating
computer simulations, however, is a much cheaper alternative. Fewer physical
prototypes and shorter development time lead to a less costly design process.
Developing and testing physical prototypes is sometimes an expensive procedure
to undertake.
¤ Reduction
in Production Costs
Increasing
tool/die longevity means fewer breakdowns in production,
as well as optimized designs means a minimum of material
costs – these
costs can rapidly become significant over large production
or when working with
expensive materials.
|
SOFTWARE & SIMULATION APPLICATIONS
The
specific applications of software analysis
tools in the various disciplines of the Mold/Tool/Die
industry
are largely cost-effective and improve reliability
as following in the next topics:
¤ Molds and Castings
§ Mold
designs evaluation and analysis before the expensive
production process minimizing development and redesigning
costs.
§ Design and stress analysis of Mold and platen.
§ Analysis and prediction of the feature of the final molded product.
§ Thermal analysis of work material during molding process.
§ Optimal pressure analysis for blow molding applications.
§ Optimal force analysis for compression molding.
¤ Metal
Stampings and Extrusions
§ Reducing
the number of physical prototypes and lead times.
§ Increasing mould tool/die life.
§ Analyzing the deformability of the material early in the development cycle
improving product design optimization. |
§ Predicting metal flow throughout the stamping process.
§ Determining the final dimensions of the stamped parts.
§ Allowing evaluating and testing various loading schemes before the prototype
phase.
§ Preventing flow induced defects such as excessive thinning of material
and/or wrinkling.
§ Reducing amount of scrap material.
¤ Forgings
§ Developing
forging sequences and analyzing material flow to
prevent defects such as laps and cold shuts
§ Predicting work material behavior reducing die tryout time and development
costs.
§ Predicting material flow and geometry of final part.
§ Evaluating forging processes and their effects on internal material stresses.
§ Conducting die stress analysis prior to first forging trials.
§ Predicting and evaluating temperatures in warm forging operations so that
material properties, including friction.
§ Optimizing product design.
§ Maximizing die life. |
Other
analyses allowed by software analysis tools are:
¤ Static
analysis
information on internal stresses that can assist to forecast possible problems
in design. This information allows tool and die manufacturers avoiding large-scale
failures that could result in the inoperability of expensive manufacturing
machinery such as presses and extruders. Static analysis in addition let
to evaluate the product, verifying that it can reach designed functionalities.
¤ Thermal
analysis
Important tool for industrial processes, allow analyzing the work materials
at various levels of heating while they are being formed. Thermal analysis
allows to determine the proper material temperature while it is being forged,
extruded, or molded. Analysis software used in these industrial processes
can perform steady state or transient thermal analysis on the tooling. The
designer can obtain a realistic prediction of temperature distributions under
prescribed loads and operating conditions.
¤ Nonlinear
analysis
Allows to evaluate product performance within a complex, 3D-simulated environment,
offering a far more accurate determination of the different factors that
may cause a device failure. Nonlinear analysis tools are effective for analyzing
static and dynamic problems with geometric and material non-linearity, hyper-elasticity,
creep, thermo-plasticity, and viscous elasticity. Nonlinear analysis software
can also analyze nonlinear contact problems involving models surface interactions
with or without friction. |
