OCTOBER - 20199MANUFACTURING TECHNOLOGY INSIGHTSerror and lowering final costs. Pat Stevens, engineering manager with Liberty Molds, Inc., has said, "In this business, time is money. Something that used to take us 16 weeks to build, we can now build in 10­12 weeks." His team is now also using simulation tools to identify and correct problems before designs are sent to the shop floor. Classic Tool and Die is a family-owned tool and die shop in Ontario, Canada, which builds stamping dies primarily for the automotive industry. After adopting an integrated software solution for quoting to design to manufacture, they saw significantly improved productivity through shortened design and build times, enabling them to meet the demanding lead times of the automotive industry. Adriano Oppio, vice president at Classic Tool & Die, stated, "Using a single solution eliminates errors due to translating data from one CAD software program to another, and completely streamlines all of our internal processes."Innovating the Future With advances in machining and manufacturing technology, the job of tool making is becoming even more complicated. Advanced software has become essential to managing that complexity, and enables toolmakers to create molds that deliver higher quality parts, faster.For example, large, highly complex, and thin-wall injection molded parts create unique challenges in material flow and consistent cooling to prevent warpage. In recent years, conformal cooling has become available to help address this challenge. Traditional drilled or milled cooling channels create inconsistency around part geometry and are less effective when dealing with large parts or highly intricate part designs. Using additive manufacturing to produce conformally cooled mold cores or inserts for these intricate designs can lead to higher quality parts and reduced injection cycle time. To help accomplish this, our software developers have created sophisticated algorithms to automate the relatively complicated and time-consuming process of designing optimal conformal and conventional cooling channels.As options for mold design and manufacturing become more complicated and competitive, I'm proud to be part of a team of software engineers that is working very hard to deliver easy-to-use, integrated tooling solutions to simplify the job of toolmakers. Industry-leading manufacturers who are incorporating these integrated CAD/CAM software solutions into their workflows are not only maintaining their competitive advantage but are also leading the industry into the digital future. Software is a core part of this transformation, and the number of software development engineers worldwide is overgrowingCarol Zampell
< Page 8 | Page 10 >