In close cooperation with our partners we develop mathematical methods and parametrical models to solve complex design tasks. Our solution allows to create extremely intuitive near-production-ready virtual parametrical design. In most cases, the process is fully automated.

The end-goal of our tools is to provide high quality NURBS-surface data. This allows lossless data transfer to any other CAD/CAM system for manufacturing or other purposes. More about our core competences...

• Software (for Windows)

• Complex NURBS surface modelling

• Additional software solutions

The Image shows a high-performance racing boat....

Complex boundary conditions can make NURBS surface design challenging. General purpose CAD software can’t often be used for such special purposes.

Together with our customers and partners from a range of fields like Architecture, Product Design, Medical Technologies, Automotive or Engineering Industry, we develop special purpose molds.

The various projects, we are involved in share a common requirement: the need to design smooth NURBS surface models for manufacturing purposes. Some of the recent special projects are...

We’ve also developed a number of additional custom software components. We utilize these components to help clients successfully complete their custom projects.
Some examples are described here...

Detailed description of our software

Auto SBC is an abbreviation for "Automated Springback Compensation". The software allows to transform a set of given trimmed NURBS surfaces into their resultant deformed mesh surface. The tool can also be used for other similar applications (e.g. compensation of elastic mold bending).

To use the software, a vector field or two compatible mesh surfaces (internally used to calculate the vector field) must be provided.

Auto SBC has been designed to be used in combination with FE-software like PAM-STAMP, AUTOFORM or LS-DYNA. The FE-analysis is used to determine the resultant surface of the compensated mold represented by a mesh surface. The data, provided by FE-software tools are used as the input for Auto SBC.

Benefits

• Once the input data is provided, the procedure is fully automatic.

• Rapid calculation. The time required to calculate the surface transformation of the part shown in this video (Front hood of DaimlerChrysler) is just 3:08 min.

• High quality surface data: Accurate representation of the deformed mesh. “Skinnable” (transition tolerance of 0.01 mm) surface model.

• Very easy to use. Just half an hour of training time is enough to get started.

• Fixed surfaces that have not been modified within the FE-optimization process will remain unmodified.

• Symmetry is supported.

• Robust extrapolation algorithms allow the software to be used for spring forward analysis.

• The vectors do not have to start exactly at the CAD surfaces.

• The vector field can be inhomogeneous and may have arbitrary holes. (in this case, the existing vectors parameters will be used for interpolation)

• The vectors do not have to define the entire part; a partial coverage is sufficient (as in case of any spring forward analysis). In such cases, the outer regions of the die may also be transformed using a slightly abating transformation field.

Special features

• Fully automatic:
  Triangle meshes (STL-format) are imported and NURBS-surfaces (IGES-Format) are calculated and exported in IGES-format.

• Optimized to be used in batch mode:
  covermesh can be supplied as a library to be integrated into your digital process to be called directly by any script.

• Simple Windows interface:
  A very simple simple GUI lets operators run covermesh with a set of specific parameters.

• Plug-in for Rhinoceros:
  covermesh for Rhinoceros may be called directly from within a CAD system. The resulting surface data (NURBS-surfaces) may be integrated directly into any CAD-model.

RhinoCWK is a plug-in for Rhinoceros. Design data and their attributes can be exchanged between Cadworks and Rhinoceros.

Cadworks is the leading 3D CAD/CAM software for timber construction. Cadworks is used to plan and design the constructions. The production processes are often further defined and planned within Rhinoceros.

RhinoCWK was successfully used on a number of projects, for example for the "Centre Pompidou Metz"...

This software tool automatically designs the complex base bodies and all additional working surfaces required to design trim steels used for cutting sheet metal and plastic parts. New calculation algorithms have been developed and implemented to create 3D offset curves and surfaces. The software completely eliminates the need for the time-consuming mutli-stage manual design procedure that was used up until today.

Benefits

• The workload is reduced by almost 95%! The definition and calculation of all cutting blades for the Porsche side panel (shown above) - now requires less than 2 hours (vs. the 40 hours, it would require without the software).

• Beside the cutting blade body the working surfaces, required for machining, are also computed automatically. Four different shape types are available to meet any required guideline: The "V”; the "Double V”; the "Straight” and the "Step”-shapes.

• To satisfy machining conditions the working surfaces are automatically adjusted to prevent collision and backdraft.

• The guaranteed optimal clearance (oversize) of the created casting bodies, as well as the optimized size of the working surfaces reduces the required machining time to the absolute minimum.

• Thanks to the automatic procedure, parameters’ calculation is precise and reproducible.

• The software is very easy to use, only requiring less than half a day training.

Scrap cutter with a sharp-edged (90°) cutting curve, upper (left) and lower (right)

• Einsatz des Schneidleistenmoduls TSE in der Prozesskette des Audi-Werkzeugbaus, Johannes Möller, AUDI AG.

• Erfahrungsbericht zur betrieblichen Einführung von TSE bei Bm Form Tec GmbH, Thorsten Kownatzki, BM FORM TEC GMBH.

The base body parameters of restrike dies - used for sheet metal parts - are generated automatically. New mathematical algorithms have been developed to handle special conditions: The design is determined by two leading 3d curves, which presented a challenge for automatic calculation (the cutting blades have a single curve). An additional method was developed: a consistent tangential extension for multi-part boundary curves.

Benefits

• The workload is reduced about 95%.

• The optimization of the resultant casting body size significantly reduces the required machining time.

• Thanks to the automatic procedure, parameters’ calculation is precise and reproducible: Casting clearances are also calculated automatically, even for complex geometrical areas.

• Easy to use. The required initial training is just 2 hours.

Upper die: Unlike cutting blades, restrike dies are defined by two 3D curves: Curve A, which normally is created by virtual edges (along a chain of blending faces) and curve B that represents the part boundary.

Section of the upper die, curve A and B are displayed as intersection points

To define restrike dies two additional surface operations have been implemented:

• Tangential extension of the part boundary surfaces (above). The part outer surfaces (curve B) is automatically extended according to the user-defined value. The resulting surface model is “skinnable”.

• Offset-surface (see picture above). The part boundary surfaces and the calculated extended surfaces are combined to automatically calculate the resultant offset surface. This surface is required to trim the casting body. The use of offset surface ensures the precise and consistent casting clearance.

At the early stage of the casting mold and tool design, the software automatically builds offset surfaces with large (around 50 mm) offset distance values. To handle the small offset values within the material thickness, we’ve implemented an additional procedure. The illustration above shows an offset surface (offset distance of 60 mm) for a side panel.

Benefits

• Fully automated, easy to use

• Excellent ability to handle holes and gaps in the provided surfaces (and between them)

• Resultant calculated surfaces have small data footprint

• Automated calculation of a zero surface (offset distance = 0 mm)

• Allows using mesh-based data, e.g., from FE-software-tools like DIEDESIGNER (AUTOFORM) or PAM-DIEMAKER (ESI-GROUP) or other similar software.

Zero surface and 60 mm internal offset

Spline surface models of sheet metal parts often do not contain all base surfaces that are needed to recover virtual edges (also called "theoretical corners"). One such case is when the surface model has not been designed by parametrical methods. This is due to the fact, that the data origin often is a physical clay model. In this case the derived spline faces do not have linked any base surfaces that meet in the virtual edge. Another possible reason is that the base surfaces have been lost due to the translation of the data between several CAD systems.

However, a number of mold design scenarios does require virtual edges as well as the additional surface data on surfaces, which end in those virtual edges, when they meet each other (see figure above). Another similar task (internally using the same algorithms) is rounding radius reduction. This procedure is important for creating so-called "cut outs" in the punch and die designs.

Benefits

• Extremely simple and intuitive, fully automated

• The resulting curve segments that define virtual corners are automatically joined into a single continuous 3d curve.

• Automatic rounding radius reduction by a required distance for a given chain of blending surfaces.

A so called “winding off” method is often used in order to come up with the initial approximation of the required trim curve. As a first approximation of the trim curve. Standard CAD systems do not support such calculation well, which means that the calculation requires a lot of manual work and calculation time.

The current module of panelshop offers a pure geometrical solution to determine trim curves: Flange boundary curves will be winded off in planar sections of any predesigned spine curve onto the surfaces of the die. The result is a spline curve and/or a sequence of points that represents the trim curve.

Benefits

• Easy to use, no training required

• Short calculation times

The integrated mesher was developed to mesh any type of CAD-faces. Several options like "edge length" or "normal deviation" can be set to adjust the mesh to the users requirements. The computed meshes can be exported in common FEA formats Data Translater for more details).

To allow FEA to be used for efficient tube bending processes a special tube mesher has been developed.

Tube mesher: Needs the same input data as a bending machine - polyline and radii

In addition to the input of the polyline and the radii the user has to determine the mesh size. A process-adjusted mesh is calculated automatically.

Benefits

• Easy to use

• Robust

• Includes a special tube mesher