Feature-Driven Process-Content Die-Planning and Costing System

Forming Technologies Inc. (FTI), Burlington, Ontario, Canada, has introduced its FormingSuite Process Planner, a product-geometry feature-based and process-content-driven system to determine process layout and die cost. Process Planner helps users create a process flow, predict the number of operations, and calculate die load, press size, tonnage and energy, as well as the cost of the die. Unlike traditional bill-of-material or historical-based products, the feature-based recognition system, say company officials, will automatically identify the product’s stamping features and the severity index to reflect the complexity of the operations, and schedule or lay out the operations for the user. Because the system is associative and regenerative, the end user can quickly determine the cost of the product with the appropriate number of operations so that they can compare progressive and transfer dies based on efficiency.

Formingsuite’s Process Planner includes a customized spreadsheet that allows the user to establish the material cost, die cost, number of operations and the process cost early in the design/planning process. Process Planner also can be used in batch scenarios and is incorporated in the Automatic Costing System (ACS) for whole car or whole car program analysis.

Forming Technologies Inc.: 905/340-3370; www.forming.com

See also: Hexagon Manufacturing Intelligence

Technologies: Software

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