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3D Stamping Die Software: Reduce mold manufacturing cycles

Release time:

2017-10-12

Different from the plastic mold with relatively standardized design, due to the non-standardization and multiple processes of stamping die design, the traditional two-dimensional design method is still used in China to complete the sophisticated stamping die design, which leads to a series of problems such as long design time, high error rate, and unsmooth and fast connection between design and processing. As the competition in the mold industry becomes increasingly fierce, the manufacturing period of the mold is required to be shorter and shorter, and this situation is bound to be broken.

The emergence of three-dimensional stamping die design software is in line with the current urgent needs and effectively makes up for the shortcomings of traditional two-dimensional design. Vero, which has been working on this project for many years, has brought together the ideas of stamping die technology experts from several countries and has provided the industry with a set of professional 3D stamping die optimal solutions.

Intuitive belt simulation

The two-dimensional flat stamping die design limits the designer's spatial imagination of the actual product and mold components, and it is difficult to have a real and image concept of the product material belt, which is prone to errors, such as the design of punches and avoidances. Once a set of molds is wrong, its loss will be incalculable.

The advantages of 3D stamping die software in this regard are obvious. The 3D physical product model makes it easier for users to understand the characteristics of the product and thus better develop the individual processes. The powerful bending analysis allows the designer of the development process to no longer imagine the empty air, but only to arbitrarily set the desired process shape on the 3D body. And in the past, the most cumbersome operation - the design part of the material belt does not have to worry, there is no need to copy and cut, as long as each tool punch is established and the station number to be placed in each process, you can easily obtain the actual material belt you need, and you can watch the entire material belt simulation.

"In practice, it's invaluable to us!" explains Phil Ross, project design manager at Witney, Vero's 3D die software, Visi-Progress, which has been in Vero's 3D die software for many years. We needed to develop a mold with nine stations and to ensure that we could precisely control and simulate bending during the molding process before developing the strip layout. In order to avoid trial and error, the simulation of the material belt after adding the tool punch is necessary for products with complex shapes. ”

"Shape features that might otherwise require multiple processes can now be stamped in a single mold to produce a high-quality finished product. VISI-Progress enables us to precisely stamp features such as precise arcs, complex punctures and sloped sidewalls. If it were not for the software's proficiency, shape features like this would not have been possible to be processed and manufactured in a continuous mold. ”

As Phil Ross said, Vero's Visi-Progress software provides users with a powerful tool for unfolding products in order to provide more accurate design solutions, providing a variety of unfolding methods for bend analysis alone through a series of algorithms. Users can choose whether to unfold with constant radius or length depending on the characteristics suitable for material forming, and these options will help designers achieve a more accurate unfolded size. In order to better conform to the design of the belt, the parametric tool mode can easily change the order of the gradual unfolding of the products, in order to obtain the most ideal process arrangement in the shortest possible time.

Shorten design and machining cycles

If the visibility of 3D stamping die software is an effective way to avoid human error in the design process; Then, its fast modeling method and perfect database, combined with the perfect combination of similar CAM software, is the key to the goal of greatly shortening the design and processing time cycle. Vero's CAD/CAM software Visi-Series takes this into account and provides users with other related CAM modules that can be perfectly converted with Visi-Progress in advance. Truly realize the integration of design and processing.

So, how can you shorten the design and machining time cycle and improve overall efficiency? Vero provides users with an ideal die design process that directly receives and converts files in various formats such as Parasolid, IGES, Catia, STEP, Pro-E, UG, Solid Edge, Solid Works, ACIS, DWG and DXF, and saves time in rebuilding models by automatically repairing broken surfaces and small gaps during the conversion process with powerful patching tools. In the process of 3D stamping die software design, the automatic establishment of solid mold components and their three views greatly saves the time of drawing bending schematics and three views of parts in 2D design. Then there is the perfect connection with processing, three-dimensional stamping die software because of the establishment of 3D solid, then the standard parts and related parts on each template formed holes have corresponding processing attributes, only with the relevant automatic processing feature recognition function, can automatically detect each type of hole in the 3D template, and automatically generate the corresponding drilling processing program, so as to realize the intelligent processing of the template. In this way, the original machining mode of programming the machining process one by one based on the 2D drawing can be completely abandoned. Because this processing mode is not only time-consuming and error-prone for stamping dies with a large number of holes, the gains outweigh the losses. If combined with similar processing modules such as Wire and 3D CAM, the final integrated design processing mode can be realized.

Phil Ross added: "Continuous stamping dies are often very challenging for design. We estimate that using the related modules in Visi-Progress and Visi-Series, design and machining time can be reduced by at least 30%. ”

The future of 3D stamping die software

Although the three-dimensional stamping die software has not yet been popularized in China, this indicates its unlimited potential. As competition continues to intensify, competitors are looking for ways to outperform their own success. Reducing the error rate and shortening the entire manufacturing period is the most powerful way to win. With the continuous improvement of software technology, it is believed that the use of three-dimensional stamping mold software for design will be an unstoppable and inevitable trend like the use of three-dimensional software for mold design. And all we have to do is be well prepared, seize the moment and get a head start.