Fast Link with Simulation to Minimize the Time to set up a Simulation and Spent for Iterations

Support for the many iterations, which is characteristic of the early design phase of a car project, is covered through a dedicated link between both the die face design and the simulation environment. The final goal of virtual prototyping is to get the part out of the press ‘right first time’.

However, this requires beforehand a fast number of iterations within the simulation environment to come to a robust and feasible solution for the production of the component. The first simulation will usually be far from the final feasible design. In addition, the part geometry itself will frequently change during in this phase: small features can be added or removed, or parts can be completely re-designed. Historically the CAD model of the tool was imported without additional supporting information. A blank outline and drawbeads had to be defined along with their data and properties, resulting in time-consuming generation of the final tooling. This resulted in cumbersome and time-consuming iteration with a lot of manual work for the engineer, and with a huge risk for project delays and budget overspending. On top of that, also errors appeared between subsequent iterations. All of ESI-Group’s solutions for die face design are currently embedded in a CAD environment (CATIA V5 and VISUAL). They include a streamlined and efficient transition between die face design and the simulation based analysis tool, by reducing the amount of required user-interaction to an absolute minimum.

The quick link with simulation saves up to 80% of the time needed for setting up a draw die simulation. Not only are geometrical data (like punch and binder geometry) transferred, but also process data like binder forces, binder travel distances, part material definition and thickness and material offset direction and finally car and tipping system of coordinates are kept in order to enable advanced inter-disciplinary engineering.