Page 34 - MetalForming Magazine October 2022 - FABTECH

in the AEC uses AutoForm-CostEsti- mator to help estimate tooling costs early on in the planning and bidding phase with customers. The program calculates tooling costs based on a defined production sequence, allow- ing users to evaluate alternative pro- duction concepts.
AutoForm-StampingAdviser enables Boghian, he explains, to quick- ly evaluate part and process feasibility for new designs coming down from customers, to perform springback analysis and compensation to help develop blank shape and evaluate material utilization.
“I can check and compensate for splitting and excess thinning,” he says, “as well as for the potential for wrinkling.”
With DieDesigner, Boghian can use CAD part geometry to develop—and adjust—die-face designs, as well as create addendum and then automat- ically develop flanges on to the adden- dum surface.
“Then, using Compensator, I can modify the die surfaces based on pre- cise springback calculations,” he says, “or measured springback, defining compensation regions or the complete surfaces.”
Explaining how PTM’s use of Auto- Form-CostEstimator benefits cus- tomers, “before, when a design moved from estimating to production, it was basically just a picture of the part,” Boghian says. “We’d see, for example, that estimators calculated the need for a specific number of die stations, and would name each station (form, flange, trim, etc.), but the design was incom- plete. Now with AutoForm-CostEsti- mator, they typically can go into the design and select specific part features and provide us with a more complete die-operational layout. The process design coming from an estimator is much more accurate station to station, simplifying what we have to do in design and ultimately allowing us to start producing the tooling much more quickly than before.”
No CAD Needed
Last but not least, PTM’s AEC has been an early user of AutoForm- DieDesignerPlus, which allows a designer to create part-geometry fea- tures within the AutoForm interface.
“I can use the software to quickly create CAD-quality die-face geometry without using a separate CAD system,”
Boghian notes. “That can make the process very efficient. Theoretically, we can design an entire tool inside of AutoForm and not have to take any new surfaces created back into CAD to fix them. Now, we can go right from AutoForm and cut the tool, the surfaces are that good.” MF
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