CIMdata PLM Industry Summary Online Archive
October 2004
Product News
Delcam to Demonstrate Intelligent 3D Mould Design at Euromold
Delcam will demonstrate the latest release of its PS-Moldmaker 3D mould design software, PS-Moldmaker, at the Euromold exhibition to be held in Frankfurt from 1st to 4th December. PS-Moldmaker provides a combination of automation to speed the design process and flexibility to manage design changes efficiently. Together with the other programs in Delcam's Power Solution range of CADCAM software, PS-Moldmaker allows designers of injection mould tools to move successfully from processes based on two-dimensional drawings to more productive methods based entirely on three-dimensional computer models.
Like other mould design systems, PS-Moldmaker allows users to create the core and cavity design from the CAD model of the product and then build up the remainder of the mould using standard components from catalogues of leading suppliers. Drawings of the general assembly of the mould and the individual components are generated automatically as the design progresses, including a complete, associative set of fully-ballooned drawings for all the plates, together with the related hole schedules for drilling cycles.
The Bills of Materials for the various suppliers are also generated and updated automatically as the design is developed. This enables components to be ordered as soon as they are specified so allowing earlier delivery of the main plates, possibly even before the overall design has been finalized.
However, PS-Moldmaker offers a broader solution than other similar systems. It includes catalogues from a wider range of standard component suppliers. In addition, the built-in intelligence allows the software to recommend suitable standard component sizes at every stage and ensures that appropriate clearances are added between components automatically. PS-Moldmaker also includes a powerful range of Wizards to simplify many parts of the process, including the Die Wizard for the creation of the die blocks, the Slide Wizard for slide design, and the Cooling Wizard for the placing of cooling channels.
As well as speeding the design process and helping to avoid mistakes, the system's intelligence means that it can cope with design changes much more effectively than systems based purely on parametric design. With the associative, parametric approach, changes are managed through strict mathematical relationships. This means that any alterations to the product design will often result in components with non-standard sizes. These need to be made to order and so are more expensive and take longer to acquire than standard components.
With PS-Moldmaker, in contrast, the software will recommend the nearest standard size that can accommodate the change. While this can require more operator input than the parametric approach, it does ensure that standard components can be used as far as possible and so reduces the overall cost and time to produce the tool. It also maintains the user's control over the tool design.
The other key benefits of PS-Moldmaker come from its close integration with the other software within Delcam's Power Solution range. While many other systems struggle with product designs generated in other software, Delcam's PS-Exchange data translation service gives fast, reliable transfer of design data from all the major product design programs, including CATIA, UG, SDRC, Pro/Engineer, SolidWorks and Autodesk Inventor.
If there are any problems with the translation or, as is more often the case, the designer has not completely finished the design, Delcam's PowerSHAPE hybrid modeller provides a wide range of tools to repair any problems, such as missing, duplicate or poorly-trimmed surfaces, fillets or blends. PowerSHAPE can also be used to improve processability, for example, by adjusting draft angles or wall thicknesses, before work begins on the mould design.
Combining PowerSHAPE with PS-Moldmaker also gives the user the ability to produce non-standard components or mechanisms that may be needed for larger or more complex moulds. The automated processes within PS-Moldmaker can be exited at any stage so that manual adjustment can be to the design with any of PowerSHAPE's powerful modeling tools. The user can then return to the automatic methods to complete the mould.
Direct links from PS-Moldmaker to Delcam's PowerMILL CAM system ensure highly reliable machining of both holes and pockets. Company-specific templates can be established to provide automated feature-based machining that takes full account of the machine tools available and the preferred manufacturing methods.
In addition, Delcam's PowerINSPECT software can be used to inspect each component as it is produced. This allows any problems to be resolved immediately, so ensuring that the final assembly of the mould proceeds smoothly.
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