Rapid Die Face Design: a step towards End-to-End ... - ESI Group

3 questions for…
Mark Vrolijk
Die Face Design Product Manager
What are the main market challenges?
“As many other areas, the die face design market has felt the impact of
the economic crisis; thus reinforcing the urge to save time and money,
without compromising on quality. During a die face design process, the
design is often modified several times; although we still observe an
increasing lack of automation as we go forward in the process – meaning
a lot of manual re-work.
In fact, while the cost estimation and feasibility phases can largely be
automated, the final die face design, where more details and higher surface
accuracy need to be considered, cannot. The user is left with a
generic CAD environment which does not contain dedicated functionalities
and workflow for his/her job. In practice this means that die face
designs are often created twice: once for prototyping, often in a CAE
environment, and once for production, in a CAD environment.
Additionally, many CAE-based die face designs cannot be used for the
final die milling, which implies a redesign in a CAD environment. When
taking into account all of these above limitations and challenges, saving
time and money are therefore not an easy task.”
What are the opportunities presented by
PAM-DIEMAKER for CATIA V5?
“PAM-DIEMAKER for CATIA V5 enables data transferability and consistency
between the various stages of the die face design process by offering
surface quality and functionality required for each step. By avoiding
time-consuming duplication of geometries, considerable time-saving
can be achieved. Moreover, due to the fact that all phases in the die
face design process can be supported in a fast and efficient manner,
there is no longer a need for a costly in-house die face design solution
in a CAE environment.
Most of the die face design solutions currently available work with
parametric 2D profiles. This is a very fast and efficient way to create
the addendum geometry. However, when working on more complicated
geometries, it frequently fails to create the required geometry and
either the user has to make a compromise, or he needs to model the die
design (partially) in a CAD environment. PAM-DIEMAKER for CATIA V5
is very flexible: it is based on the 2D profile approach, but when specific
geometries are required, all available CATIA V5 (surface) functionality
can be used to create the shape required.”
What is the future and strategic importance of
Virtual Manufacturing as a whole?
“The world is full of changes, with some of them, such as climate change,
straining the manufacturing industry. Consequently, the industry continually
needs to come up with new ideas, manufacturing methods, and
materials to meet the ever-changing requirements and expectations.
‘New’ entails test and validation before implementation. Testing new
ideas is thus a common and regular task.
Virtual Manufacturing allows this ‘testing’ in a fast and efficient way –
whilst saving resources. So before anything is built, Virtual Manufacturing
is performed to select the right innovations.
The fundamental idea to create an integrated and synthetic environment,
to support Virtual Manufacturing, is now at an advanced stage
with the offer of PAM-DIEMAKER for CATIA V5 for instance. The next
step, already underway, is fully enabling End-to-End Virtual Prototyping
throughout the entire chain from manufacturing to performance testing
and to delivering the product.”
F r o m p a r t d a t a . . . . . . t o F i n a l t o o l .
issue 39 | spring / summer 2010 5