Page 28 - MetalForming May 2014

D
esigning
for Dollars
In this game, the object is to save money while delivering a formable part through the right tooling. Die-design and simulation software can deliver the win.
Do your die-design and forming- lation Software Experience (www.met- dicting the future based on their expe-
alformingmagazine.com/diedesign), organized by MetalForming and slated for May 28-29, 2014, in Rosemont (Chicago), IL.
Given the ever-challenging business environment for manufacturers, we’ve surveyed leading software suppliers on how improved die-design and simula- tion processes can influence the bot- tom line of tool builders and stampers, and their customers.
Hire This Guy
Consider investing in software for the design-build process, urges Ray Proeber, president of Accurate Die Design Inc., New Berlin, WI, the North American technical center and mas- ter distributor for Logopress3 3D die- design software from Logopress Corp. and also a reseller of forming-simula- tion software from Forming Technolo- gies Inc.
Says Proeber: “We as humans don’t think as efficiently or as accurately as computers. Some very seasoned tool- makers do an admirable job of pre-
simulation efforts, or those of
the companies you select to undertake these tasks, keep up with the times?
Thirty years ago, lead time from tool-design start to first-part off stretched from 14 to 20 weeks, even for simple parts and tooling. Today, with a huge assist from die-design and forming-simulation software, eight weeks is the norm, with four weeks not unheard of.
Lead-time reduction is just one area of evolution in the software realm. Accuracy is another, and the list goes on. With such software going main- stream, how can it be best employed moving forward?
Each spring, MetalForming presents a roundup of the latest and greatest in die design and simulation for the metal-stamping process. The articles show that as these technologies con- tinue to improve, they deliver huge cost savings to metal stampers. We present these articles in conjunction with our annual Die Design and Simu-
rience along. But plenty of smart people have conducted mounds of research and performed years of testing, and they’ve programmed software with more accurate parameters than anyone can pull out of their brains. With advanced software available today, you are using proven science.”
Wear your human-resources hat, instructs Proeber, and the case for die- design and simulation software strengthens.
“Suppose you interview someone who is unbelievably accurate about toolmaking and forming predictions, and knows if something is formable just by looking at a part print,” he says, “and also can accurately predict the flat-blank size. If you could hire this person, who will positively affect every employee and process in the shop and can predict the future, for $25,000 per year (roughly the cost of a formidable simulation/design soft- ware setup), would you do it? You can have the software for half the cost of a human employee. In addition, the
26 MetalForming/May 2014
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