Page 18 - MetalForming May 2019

Sim. Software
Shines for Transfer-Die Designer
The ability to see the entire transfer system in motion, and plug in press settings and transfer curves, yields output improvements to 20 percent.
BY LOUIS A. KREN, SENIOR EDITOR
From its headquarters in Grand Rapids, MI, Die Cad Group, a Tooling Tech Group company, and its 42 employees—36 of them engineers—provides the full gamut of die and mold design services. Among its customers are OEMs, Tier-One part suppliers, and tool and die shops, representing all areas of manufacturing including automotive, appliance, agricultural and recreational equipment. Services include simulation for sheet metal forming, die design, mold design and die-detail sourcing.
Goal: More Efficient Transfer-Die Design
Die Cad Group (www.diecadgroup.com) added to its for- midable capabilities in October 2017 with the addition of T-Sim software from T-Sim Solutions (www.transfersimula- tion.com) to assist in transfer die design and transfer press optimization.
“We were looking for efficiency improvement in our design process along with improvement in checking the quality of design,” recalls Brad Rine, vice president of sales and business development at Die Cad Group, noting some issues revolving around determination of interference among tooling and the transfer equipment. “During design, when evaluating the press and the transfer equipment to determine how everything interacts, our die design-software programs offered clash detection, but not with full-motion simulation.”
Though lift height and other variables could be accounted for, seeing the full motion of part transfer was not an option. But with the T-Sim software—and less than two weeks of train- ing—engineers now had this capability at their disposal.
“T-Sim provides a look at the whole system in motion: the dies, the transfer system and the press,” explains Rine. “Our engineers can see any potential interference in the tooling as it interacts with the transfer equipment. This
Software offering clash detection with full-motion simulation enables Die Cad Group engineers to determine quickly where problems may exist during part transfer within a press.
capability really brings design quality and value to our metal forming customers.”
Transfer Optimization Yields Productivity Boosts
Die Cad Group initially employed T-Sim software on more complex transfer die designs, but now is expanding its appli- cation to transfer system designs, according to Rine.
“We feel that the software goes beyond detection of inter- ference in the transfer process—also providing the oppor- tunity to optimize the transfer process,” he says. “We can run a design, whether ours or someone else’s with all of the press and transfer data supplied through T-Sim to see how a metal former can improve output ( strokes/min.). We typ- ically see output improvements of 15 to 20 percent, so the software not only provides capabilities on new tool builds, but on current transfer press production as well.”
In such optimization applications, by plugging in cus- tomer press settings and other data such as transfer curves into T-Sim, Die Cad Group engineers look for ways to flatten curves and smooth out transfer motion.
“Sometimes we’ll see a part shaking and rattling, and through the simulation process we are able to provide a solution with a more stable process that results in improved efficiency,” says Rine. “By providing new settings that result in smooth, fluid motion, we enable our metal forming cus-
16 MetalForming/May 2019
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