Computer Aided Engineering System for Design and Manufacture of Metal Forming Dies or Moulds

Abstract

One of the essential components of any shape making process is the die which constrains the material flow to a cavity of required geometry. In addition to giving the shape, the die geometry controls a part of the material's workability as well as the flow vectors. For high technology materials this workability has to be controlled by designing the die such that the tensile hydrostatic components generated during deformation are minimised. Recently CAD/CAM techniques are being developed for the die design and manufacture and these techniques use solid geometric modelling software, process simulation using FEM techniques, CNC milling and EDM methods. It is possible to replace the expensive and time consuming trial and error methods hitherto being used for the design and manufacture by the science-based CAD/CAM methodologies. The CAE system using these computer aided techniques is described in this paper along with its application to forging and extrusion die manufacture.

Indexing terms:

• Metal forming dies
• CAD/CAM methodology