Development of an automated structural design system for progressive dies intensive, complex, and time-consuming process。 This paperdescribes a computer-aided structural design system for progressive dies with drawing, bending, and punching operations。Taking advantage of a pre-built design knowledge and database, this system is able to output designs of the main andstandard parts of a progressive die upon users inputting aminimum set of design information。 Our system is implementedon top of CATIA V5 software and uses its built-in modules,including Part Design, Assembly Design, and KnowledgeAdvisor。 Our system also consists of an inference engine anda user interface。 The experimental results show that our systemsuccessfully reduced the design time from about seven workingdays to within 2 h for the structural design of the main andstandard parts of a progressive die of an upper shell for a mobilephone, which can dramatically save on design time and cost andalso provide excellent design quality。Keywords Progressive dies 。 Automated structural designsystem 。78784
Detail design 。 Assembly design 。 Knowledge base1 IntroductionStamping parts are widely used in products of high complexity and precision, such as vehicles, computer, communication,and consumer electronic-related products, because of theircompetitive performance and productivity。 The stampingprocess has been identified as one of the most importantmanufacturing processes。 However, designing press dies isone of the critical parts of the entire development process。Besides the highly complex die structures, interferencesamong various design parameters make the design task extremely difficult and time-consuming。 It is generally believedthat designing dies is an art rather than a science。Recently, computer technology and 3D computer-aideddesign (CAD) software have been developing rapidly, andthe 3D CAD software has been widely used in designingstamping dies。 A solid model offers users an intuitive andconcrete view of the die design, which fundamentally reduces the design time。 Most 3D CAD software only offers asimple geometrical modeling function。 However, they fail toprovide users with sufficient design knowledge, which is ofgreat help in most design tasks。Therefore, the design of automatic and intelligent systems has been an active research topic around the world。Regarding the construction of a dedicated system, Sharmaand Gao [1] introduced integrated design and manufacturingplanning systems to support conceptual redesign andreprovisioning activities。 Nahm and Ishikawa [2] utilizedthe set-based design approach with the parametric modelingtechnique to handle the uncertainties intrinsic to the earlystages of the design。 Myung and Han [3] constructed anexpert system to design mechanical products based on aconfiguration design method。 Lee et al。 [4] developed aparametric computer-aided tool design system for cold forging using Auto-LISP。 Kong et al。 [5] introduced a Windowsnative 3D plastic injection mold design system based onSolid Works to make the modeling process more efficient。Chu et al。 [6] developed a computer-aided parametric designsystem for 3D tire mold production in CATIA using CAA。In the stamping tool design area, Pilani et al。 [7] proposed aneural network method for automatically generating an optimal die face design based on die face formability parameters。Based on sheet metal operations, Singh and Sekhon [8]built in AutoCAD and used AutoLISP。 Lin and Kuo [9]developed an integrated CAD/CAE/CAM system for stampingdies of a trunk lid outer panel。 Lin et al。 [10–12] utilized CADsoftware integrated with an empirical formula to develop theautomated design system for drawing die structure forautomobiles。In a progressive die, the workpiece is produced in anumber of stamping stations。 At each station, one or moredie operations are performed on the sheet metal strip。 Thefinished workpiece is produced with each strike of the press。Cheok and Nee [13] developed a knowledge-based striplayout design system in AutoCAD。