Page 33 - MetalForming Magazine October 2022 - FABTECH

process, particularly now as automotive OEMs have embarked on a race to introduce new electric vehicles to the market. In its efforts to significantly reduce the amount of in- press die-tryout time and reduce the number of recuts required on proto- type stamping tools, the PTM AEC, in 2019, invest- ed in three seats of Auto- Form Forming suite sim- ulation software.
Designers at the PTM
AEC utilize the software
“primarily to allow us to
quickly and accurately
predict and compensate
for springback and forma-
bility issues before a tool
is cast and cut,” Liggett
explains. “We also can use
AutoForm to help if an
existing tool is not per-
forming well. We can scan
the actual sheet metal
coming off of the press
and use that mesh file to
compensate the tool in
AutoForm and re-
machine it. And, we use
the Die Designer func-
tionality within AutoForm
to quickly create tool geometry and evaluate for tonnage and formability of complex parts, to assist our estimating department.”
“We find that this extra time and technology spent in engineering up front,” adds Boghian, “has a trickle-down effect to the end of the process. From cutting the tools to inspecting finished assemblies, we save considerable time, effort and money. Better parts make for less qualifying and less time in the quality department, and better welded assemblies as well. AutoForm has been worth its weight in gold; without it we would not be able to predict what will happen in the press, especially with the higher-strength steels we’ve recently been working with, all the way up to 980-MPa advanced high-strength grades.”
Complex Geometries, “Wildly Shaped”
Geometry definitely has become more complex when it comes to developing prototype stamping dies, Boghian
shares, often challenging him when asked to design tooling that can form parts that, otherwise, might be stamped as two or three separate parts and welded into an assembly.
“A lot of prototype door-inner parts seem to be wildly shaped,” he says. “In fact, we’re devel- oping a door inner right now where all of the rein- forcements are very com- plex. I’m used to working with true radii and overall good geometry. But recently, I’m seeing designs that, rather than including blended radii, often feature surfaces in CAD mated without specified geometric properties—no radiuses, just a weird, formed shape. Luckily, because of my experience and the capabilities of AutoForm, I usually can go in and fix the surfaces to make them useful in die devel- opment.”
Once he started using AutoForm at PTM, Boghi- an took note of the software’s expanded capabilities, in par- ticular its ability to take data from a 3D scan of a stamped part, created by the AEC’s quality department, and compensate
the die design to make the part to spec.
“There aren’t too many companies using AutoForm in
this way,” Boghian says, “but I find it very useful to take the actual output—the stamped prototype part—and go back into the tool design and reengineer it if needed. Typically, this occurs if the sheet metal properties don’t exactly match what our designs are based on.”
Modules, from Estimating
to Springback Compensation
Among the several modules available in AutoForm Form- ing suite, PTM primarily uses AutoForm-Explorer, Auto- Form-StampingAdviser, AutoForm-DieDesigner and Aut- oForm-Compensator modules, to plan and validate stamping processes and parts. The estimating department
30 MetalForming/October 2022
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The PTM AEC design team uses AutoForm-Explorer to evaluate draw feasibility (top), and AutoForm-Trim (bottom), in combination with Aut- oForm-FormingSolver, to determine blank outlines and for the tryout of trimming dies—designing the trimming tools simultaneously with the draw die.