Motion analysis of progressive/transfer die stamping for cycle time reduction

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

Longterm Technology Services Inc. is an independent consulting firm that works closely with the die/mold and tooling manufacturers to use the Siemens NX CAD/CAM/CAE software to improve their productivity. The company recently created an add-on software tool to couple with the existing NX Progressive Die Wizard. The add-on software tool allows the progressive or transfer die modeled by the NX Progressive Die Wizard to be validated via computer simulation. This significantly reduces the validation time using physical prototypes. Nonetheless, further development is still needed to improve the overall process efficiency. In particular, as collision between the sheet metal stock and the stamping tooling is clearly not preferable, overly conservative feeding speed of the sheet metal stock is often employed. Due to the complexity of the successive stamping operations, it is very challenging to identify the optimal feeding speed. A new motion analysis module as part of the existing software tool will be developed in this project to maximize the feeding speed of the sheet metal stock with the explicit objective to reduce the overall progressive/transfer die stamping cycle time. The proposed project aims to improve the efficiency and ensure the reliability of progressive/transfer die stamping via kinematic motion analysis and simulation. A kinematic model of the stamping press with all of its designed tooling and feeding mechanism is to be constructed first. It is then used to analyze and simulate the movement of the sheet metal stock along the successive stamping stations. In particular, the coordination of the stamping stroke of the stamping press and the continual motion of the feeding mechanism is to be analyzed in detail and optimized for cycle time reduction. The enhanced software tool will directly benefit Longterm Technology Service as well as the Canadian die/mold and tooling manufacturers. Canada has a sizable automobile stamping industry. The prospective development will thus have a huge potential economic impact and will definitely help the Canadian manufacturers to compete globally.