Tooling Design Using NAGFORM

‘Auto Design of Tooling’ is being developed in the NAGFORM software program in order to reduce the time required to design and draft tooling components and assemblies.

This module is being developed in three phases:

1. Auto Design of Standard Tooling Components – Automatic creation of dimensioned drawings of standard tooling components.
2. Auto Design of Tooling Assemblies - Automatic creation of tooling assemblies for various forming operations.
3. Link Design of Tooling Assemblies to Forming Sequence Design

Phase 1 and 2 has been completed, and the Phase 3 is in process of completion. The software now contains eighty-three tools in the Standard Tools Library that can be automatically drafted. These include:

· Die Inserts
· Punch Inserts
· Punch Pins
· Trim dies / punches
· Spacers – fillers
· Die/ Punch casings

The goal is to increase the number of standard tools to 500 and to give the user the ability to add their own tools to the library.

The program has a tooling assembly module that allows the user to create assemblies by bringing in different tools. By setting up different constraints between the tools, many of the assembly dimensions are determined automatically. Once the assembly is complete, the .dxf drawings are generated automatically.