plik pobrano ze strony www.camdi www.camdivision.pl/publika vision.pl/publikacje.html cje.html
DEVELOP3D.COM/ rEgISTrATION
nX Pv D D » Progressive Die Design is a highly involved process and an d this is compounded when it comes to integrating design change. a D investigates the dedicated suite of tools in NX from Siemens PLM Soft Software ware which helps overcome the inherent complexity complexity
O
ve the past few yeas much of the coveae about Siemens’ aship NX system has cented on HD-PLM and Synchonous Technoloy, and thee’s been little witten about the poduct’s lon standin oots in the manufactuin industy. Today, NX stands as one of a handful of tuly inteated CAD/ CAM systems, which allows an oanisation to take data fom conceptualisation, thouh desin and enineein and into the business of manufactuin and poduction with a ane of technoloy fo toolin desin, NC poammin and beyond. In NX 7 the system eceived a lot of development effot in Poessive Die Desin and it’s this that will be the focus of this eview.
» Poduc: NX Pogessive Die Design » Supplie: Siemens PLM Pice on applicaion
www.siemens.com/plm
impoted data and will quickly identify all of the bends in the pat. The use then ceates instance afte instance and woks out the ode in which the bends will be ceated in the stip. Each is an intelinked instance of the pevious stae, so chanes and modications can vey quickly be popaated thouh. Moe complex pats equie manual intevention, but aain, the powe of NX’s eomety wanlin tools and its simulation capabilities, all come into play hee. When wokin up the attened o intemediay staes of a complex stamped fom, the
UnfolDing anD Unforming As with all Poessive Die Desin tools, the statin point is the pats that need to be manufactued. These will typically be complex pats of a unifom thickness with a myiad of folded, bent, punched and stamped featues. Even at this oot level, it’s clea that Siemens has an advantae ove many mainsteam tools in its pue eomety wanlin tools. Poessive Die desin woks in a evesed pocess, statin with the nal shape, then wokin backwads, unfoldin the fom until a at blank is eached. Siemens has inteated a host of tools to do this, eithe usin an automated pocess o, fo the moe difcult components, allowin the use to manually atten out each complex bend o stamped fom. Staiht beak pats ae auably the easiest to move quickly thouh the unfomin pocess, as thei bends ae typically linea and elatively simple in natue. Thanks to Synchonous Technoloy the system can wok thouh both native and
1
1 Unbend is used o ● unfold linea bends. Fo ove-bends, NX povides paamees o conol he bend adius and bend egion 2 Accuae ● inemediae foms can be dened fo muli-sep opeaions ih inegaed CAE
use not only needs to be able to analyse the esultant shape (fom which the fom is ceated), but also ensue that thee isn’t excessive stain placed on the sheet mateial o, even wose, teain. The system has a lot of specialist tools built into to assist with fomability analysis. These use FEA like techniques to ceate an accuate and viable blank in tems of manufactuability. Essentially, the system ceates a mesh of the mid-suface of the pat in question (thouh the oute o inne suface can also be used). This is then adapted to a suface that
epesents the ideal suface fom that the pat is attened onto. The mesh allows the distotion of the mateial to be tacked and used as the basis fo simulation. Followin this the system uns thouh a simulation to et fom one to the othe. All of the analysis can be documented usin HTMLbased epots to ecod how decisions wee made and to put them into context. Fo many pats the appoach used (eithe staiht beak o feefom) won’t be as clea cut and hee the system allows uses to mix and match the techniques whee needed. It may be the case that a pat equies one complex fomin opeation to be caied out, and the staiht beak, featue-diven tools can be used fo the est. Once the pat staes ae complete the next step is to move into ceatin a stip layout which bette epesents the fom of the sheet mateial as it moves thouh the die. This is easy and equies vey little in the way of inteactive input unless you need to intoduce special featues such as notches fo stip location, ovelaps and ovecuts fo timmin puposes. One of the most citical featues in these times of hash economic pessue is the ability to maximise mateial usae (o to put it anothe way, to minimise mateial wastae). The system can display a pesistent mateial usae mete usin colou to show unused stock. This allows the use to play with the distances and swap aound intemediate staes to help maximise the amount of pats that can be made fom the die, without sacicin quality o manufactuability.
Die base Design The next stae is to ceate the die base. As with almost all moden mould o die elated applications, NX’s Poessive Die Desin tools ae cataloue-based. This allows uses to vey quickly select standad component
wOrkFLOw: HOw tO UNFOLD A COMPLEX PArt
1 Split the pat into linea and feefom eions ●
46 DECEMBER
2 Dene linea pe-bends and ove-bends ●
/ JANUARY 2011 DEVELOP3D.COM
3 Use One-step (inteated CAE fomability analysis) on ● feefom aeas to dene intemediate and attened eions
plik pobrano ze strony www.camdi www.camdivision.pl/publika vision.pl/publikacje.html cje.html SOFTWARE REVIEW
2 stacks fom pefeed vendos. Fo those lookin to custom-build a tool then all of NX’s modellin functionality is at hand, but it’s pobably moe effective to adapt existin models, so they etain thei intellience. Alonside the plate stacks, thee is a full libay of components, includin thei inheent mountin featues such as dillin cycles, and taps. Once in place, it’s a case of movin on to ceatin the featues that actually fom the components that ae bein woked on. At this point it’s impotant that the use
is wokin with an intellient model. While expeienced uses may have a ood idea of whee component clashes may occu, it’s not until the had eomety fo the vaious piecin, punchin, bendin and fomin insets ae dened, that they will et a concete idea of whee thins ae headin. NX includes template-dive template-diven n opeations fo ceatin these types of featues. These include the extaction of the faces that epesent the cut o fomin suface, the extension of those faces and the ceation of the shank, any additional components
4 Model the tansitions between linea and feefom eions ●
nX Pv D D x xp w pp w d p p d w u xp-d pd
5 Use Synchonous Technoloy to ene the blank - emove ● nishin details and adjust mateial dimensions
6 Layout the stip sequence ●
DEVELOP3D.COM DECEMBER
/ JANUARY 2011 47
plik pobrano ze strony www.camdi www.camdivision.pl/publika vision.pl/publikacje.html cje.html
3 (such as the heel, amps, anes etc) o the associated cut-outs o eliefs fo the inset once this is complete. It’ll even add in a little cleaance to ensue it’s possible to emove the insets whee needed, and combine seeminly sepaate insets onto a sinle plate and much moe. Whee possible and applicable, these can be eused acoss seveal opeations. Fo example, if thee ae common holes o othe featues to be punched, they can be copied and eused - all the while, linkin back to the oiinal data. This is pehaps the biest benet of usin a system like NX Poessive Die Desin. Whethe statin with native data o impoted ‘dumb’ eomety, eveythin you do is associative. It becomes much easie to accommodate desin chane and make adjustments. Then in subsequent pojects, data can be eused.
3 Fomingopeaions ● can be analysed hile also developing he blan ouline and im lines 4 the sip layou can ● be designed and and hen simulaed o veify design pefomance 5 NX includes an ● exensive libay of die bases and componens ha can be congued o include popieay sandad pas 6 Design auomaion ● can help o dene feefom foming punch and die ses 7 An example of a ● pogessive pogessiv e die design ih NX
into ProDUction Because the softwae is based on the NX platfom, the tools ae able to pull in additional capabilities that exist within the system. One excellent example is the ability to simulate the movement of the die. This helps ensue that the vaious components don’t clash o intefee once assembled and that the die woks as equied. Of couse, once the die desin is complete, all the kinks ae woked out and thins ae eady, 48 DECEMBER
/ JANUARY 2011 DEVELOP3D.COM
the next stae is to stat the pepaation fo poduction. In the st instance this can b e the ceation of the toolpaths fo machinin the die plates, the punches and insets. NX has an enviable eputation as a CAM system and has many stenths - not only in tems of poduction machinin of plates by millin/ dillin cycles o wie EDM, but also in tems of machinin the insets. These can often be complex equiin-5 axis machinin fo successful and efcient ceation. Alonside the machinin consideations, it’s also woth notin the wealth of tools available to assist with documentin the die - not only in tems of manufactuin, but also in tems of assembly, installation and maintenance.
intelligence & Design change We’e all used to desin chane bein pat of ou wokow - it’s a fact of life and is as much a pat of the eninee’s wokin day as anythin else. When it comes down to poessive die desin, howeve, desin chane can be a nihtmae - unless the system has been desined to handle it efciently. This has been built into NX so it can be done fom the vey stat of a poject - and by that I mean, fom the request Fo Quotation (rFQ) stae. Most typical die desin pojects ae quoted on a ouh estimate of how complex the toolin is, but p aticulaly
fo those wokin in a supply chain this is commonly offset aainst the mains made on unit pice fo the esultant pats. That can ive a eal headache. If you undequote on the toolin, pehaps as a esult of miscalculatin how many staes and how quickly the pats can be poduced, then the chances ae that you’ll have ot the unit costs won as well. While a component miht appea ‘easy’ to manufactue, anyone with expeience in the eld will tell you that simple mistakes can be the most costly - and with today’s economic pessues, that can be a costly mistake too many. By allowin uses to take a component fom pat eomety, thouh unfoldin and stip layout in a vey shot space of time and then even into die base layout, the system ives a eal oppotunity to evaluate the pocess of poducin the mould and components in the same timefame that many uses miht take just to do the unfoldin. Then with a much cleae idea of the complexity of the task at hand, that infomation can be fed into the quotation pocess to help ensue competitiveness is based on fact, athe than uess wok and estimation. Movin on fom rFQ and into poduction pepaation, the tools in NX allow the die layout to be adjusted vey ef ciently. Because eveythin links back to both the oiinal pat and the subsequent stip
plik pobrano ze strony www.camdi www.camdivision.pl/publika vision.pl/publikacje.html cje.html SOFTWARE REVIEW
layout, the system allows uses to da and dop staes, adapt folds, bends and punches to not only ensue the equied fom is ceated, but also so it makes the most efcient use of mateial and that the die can wok thouhout the equied peiod.
conclUsion NX Poessive Die Desin, when consideed as a set of add-ons fo NX, is an excellent example of what can happen when a ston and capable platfom is combined with a hue ane of expet-led specialised tools. Poessive Die Desin is a vey complex pocess, both in tems of the complexity
4
5
6
7
of the poduct (the die), and the business of manufactuin those components. With economic pessues neve bein hihe, the ability to not only tunaound quotes, but also the nal poduct, in shot timefames is absolutely essential. The chances ae that if you’e lookin fo a tool like this, then you’e wokin in a sub-contact envionment and that can only make thins moe citical. Excessive mateial scap has to be minimised, the ability to iteate a die desin to accommodate new desin chanes is key and you need to know that you’e wokin on a potable poject and meetin custome demands. Of couse,
the same is tue fo those wokin in-house manufactuin pojects. In summay Siemens PLM has manaed to build an envionment that bins specialist knowlede and automation to the foe, suppotin the industy it’s meant to seve and povidin a functionally ich set of tools to take a pat fom eomety, thouh unfoldin and stip layout, into die desin and machinin, in as shot of a space of time as is possible. But within that idealised automated wokow, it’s also possible fo the manufactuin eninee to dive in and ne tune, euse and adapt data whee equied. And we can’t ask much moe, can we?
DEVELOP3D.COM DECEMBER
/ JANUARY 2011 49