7 Ways to Improve Mold and Die Design and Manufacturing

The mold and die industry has undergone wrenching changes in recent years, and the current tough

economy is only adding to the challenge. As reported by Plastics News in a recent article, the American

Mold Builders Association estimates that a prolonged shutdown by either GM or Chrysler could push

35% to 50% of their mold suppliers into bankruptcy1. Many are already teetering as payments have

slowed and lines of credit have dried up.

Even before the economy soured, an explosion of new, low-cost competitors in emerging markets was

moving the easiest projects offshore, leaving only the largest, most complex ones for North American

suppliers. Now, as everyone scrambles for their share of a shrinking pie, pressures to improve product

quality, reduce leadtime and lower costs only increase.

It may sound like a recipe for disaster, and for many companies it will

be. But mold and die makers don’t have to just sit back and take it.

Those determined to fight back have powerful new technologies at

their disposal – technologies that make it surprisingly easy to deliver

more complex mold and die projects faster, cheaper and at higher

quality than ever before, increasing their chances of winning the

business that’s available.

Mold and die makers intent on surviving are rethinking everything.

For those willing to break out of the “that’s how we’ve always done it” paradigm, new technological

solutions offer never-before-available ways to survive the current economic downturn and emerge with

advantage as the economy recovers. By reliably delivering top-quality tooling quickly and cost effectively –

without sacrificing profit margins – these technologies are proving to be the secret weapon of those in the

know.

1

Overview

“With constantly increasing competition from countries with low-cost labor, it is im-portant for us to maintain our leading position in the market by using the best tools and machines available, and to automate our processes from design and tool construction to tool manufacturing.” – Hans Lauridsen, CEO,

Techno-Tool

Tech

no-

Tool

1Rhoda Miel, Plastics News, “Mold makers can minimize damage from potential GM or Chrysler bankruptcy”, April 17, 2009

To survive in a difficult world, tooling manufacturers need to maximize automation and focus on added-val-

ue tasks that set them apart from the competition. To accomplish this, they need to capture, manage and

leverage their intellectual know-how to differentiate their offering.

To improve competitiveness and business performance, innovation must occur across all areas of product,

process and organization, and it must occur at unprecedented speed. Sequential processes and non-value-

add activities such as translating data from one application to the next are wasteful luxuries no tool and die

maker can continue to indulge. With the right processes and systems in place, bidding, design, simulation/

analysis, NC manufacturing, quality control and production can overlap to a significant degree, and each

concurrent process cuts costs and time previously wasted by sequential ways of working.

In today’s environment, making your next mold as good as your last

one isn’t enough. Every mold must be better than the one that came

before it. Tooling suppliers need to capture, share and re-use what

they know, constantly building on their expertise for continuous

improvement in their offering. Knowing what you know allows you

to answer bids more quickly and accurately, protecting your bottom

line. Standardizing that knowledge ensures that every design meets

your company’s exacting standards and is configured to the specific

requirements of each individual customer – without costly and time-

consuming manual verification.

Manufacturing, too, must be right the first time, every time. Not only is it too expensive to correct late-cycle

changes, but these late development changes can also negatively impact your committed delivery dates.

Today, mold and die makers must know at the design stage that the tool will work exactly the way it should

and, increasingly, they need to prove it to the customer early in the process.

Meeting the challenge of survival

2

“With the increase in accuracy and quality of our designs, we have greatly decreased the time spent to identify undetected design errors. We estimate the reductions in check time, coupled with other savings, have reduced design cycles by 50-70%.”

– Brett Ashba, Vice President, Die Cad Group

Die

Cad

Gro

up

If your company wants to be one of those that not only survives but thrives, focus on seven key success factors:

1. Eliminate the need for data translation by using a single environment for both mold surfacing and mold design

Nearly all original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) design their products in a solid modeling environment.

Most mold and die shops use the solid modeling environment to generate mold surface information, then

translate the surface geometry to a wireframe tool to design the mold. Often an additional translation is

required for CNC (Computer Numerical Controlled) programming. When the part or mold design changes,

the geometry needs to be retranslated, and in many cases, tooling design and CNC programming steps need

to be performed again as well.

Today, leading mold and die makers avoid these chal-

lenges by leveraging the same solid modeling environ-

ment used by most mold and die OEM customers to

produce the mold surface geometry, design the mold

tooling and produce the CNC program, eliminating

the need for retranslation and rework. Utilizing a

single master model for the design geometry, the de-

sign, mold tooling and CNC programming enable a moldmaker’s teams to work concurrently, which reduces project

leadtime. The single master model approach also automatically propagates design changes from the part design to the

mold design to the CNC program, ensuring mold quality and saving additional time.

3

7 Key success factors to thriving in today’s tough competitive environment

“By reducing or eliminat-inig the need for hardcopy drawings on the shop floor, we minimize common mis-understandings between manufacturing and engineer-ing teams. The designer, the planner, the NC programmer and the toolmaker all have the same view of the tool and can agree on details with each other easily.” – Jürgen Faller, Head of CAD/CAM Production,

Läpple AGLäp

ple

AG

“Using CATIA allowed us

in our very first attempt to

reduce the number of hours

required to design

a mold by 30%.”

– Luigi Nicoletti, Engineering Manager,

Concours MoldCon

cou

rs M

old

Having a single master model significantly reduces retranslation and rework.

2. Use knowledge templates to capture and reuse automated design standards

Most mold companies use specialized moldmaking software applications that automate many of the routine design

tasks and ensure adherence to customer standards. But these specialized programs do not offer the benefits of general-

purpose computer aided design (CAD) software, such as compatibility with part designs and powerful visualization

and simulation capabilities.

Today’s most competitive mold and die makers

leverage general-purpose CAD software like

Dassault Systèmes CATIA for Mold and Die, to

achieve the best of both worlds. By embedding

their own company standards, their customers’

standards and their machine requirements into

easily constructed, reusable templates, the mold

designer can start with 80% of the work already

done. These templates include machine standards such as plates that are of the right size and material and have the

required notches and tolerances to fit a particular press. By further customizing templates to create customer-specific

versions and variations, users also ensure conformance to customer standards such as screw sizes, drill holes and clear-

ances. Corporate standards are embedded in design rules to capture the intellectual capital of a mold and die com-

pany, allowing it to be reused and ensuring consistency – both with the corporation’s standards and with the exacting

standards of each individual customer.

4

“With CATIA Knowledgeware templates that are fully and easily configured, we now have more powerful capa-bilities and embedded design standards we just didn’t get with our previous applica-tion.”

– Luigi Nicoletti, Engineering Manager,

Concours Mold

Con

cou

rs M

old

“We were able to create an

extensive, intelligent data-

base of parts and assemblies

that greatly reduce the time

required to design a stamping

die.”

– Corey Chamberlain,

Founding Partner, 3-D Solutions Design Service

3 -D

Sol

uti

ons

Des

ign

Ser

vice “By considerably reducing re-

petitive design work, we have

shortened design time and

can deliver our mold designs

to customers faster.”

– Davide Cantarini, Owner,

Pro Stampi

Pro

Stam

pi

Easily capture, share and reuse technical information using knowledge templates.

3. Visualize the proposed mold design as a rendered 3D solid model to present validation concerns prior to manufacturing

Traditional wireframe-based mold design software

makes it difficult to visualize the design through the

resulting maze of overlapping lines. The inability to

visualize complex mold designs contributes to errors

that might go unnoticed until the mold is under con

struction, when it is costly to correct and most likely

to cause delays.

In-the-know mold and die makers improve mold quality and prevent costly errors by deploying a solution that enables

their designers to visualize the proposed mold design as a rendered 3D model that is much easier to understand than

a wireframe. This makes it possible to correct errors at an early stage, avoiding expense and delays. Another advantage

of building the mold as a 3D solid model is that customers can easily view the mold and understand its performance in

the early stages of the design process, saving time and money by avoiding the need for expensive, late-cycle changes.

4. Simulate the performance of the mold or die prior to manufacturing

Creating physical prototypes to test mold performance is costly, time consuming and runs the risk that errors will remain unresolved until the project is nearly complete, when the cost to correct and the chances of missing key delivery dates are high. Leading mold and die makers are going beyond visualization to virtually simulate the performance of the mold during the design phase.

5

“Working in solids greatly

improves the accuracy and

quality of our designs, reduc-

ing the time a die spends

in check.”

– Brett Ashba, Vice President,

Die Cad Group Inc.

Die

Cad

Gro

up

Inc.

“With CATIA, we can turn

a vehicle part into the sun

(virtually) and see whether

or not the surface is math-

ematically correct.”

– Jürgen Faller, Head of CAD/CAM Production,

Läpple AG

Läp

ple

AG

3D representation of open injection plastic mold with finished product.

Mechanical assembly constraints can be used to automatically generate the mechanisms required to

simulate the motion of the mold and removal of the molded part. At any point in the design process, the

mechanism can be viewed to validate, assess and change the product design. Mechanism motion definition

is fully associative with the product design.

The software also supports the creation of animated files, making it

easy to assemble and maintain the mold. Clashes between components

are automatically identified. This approach drastically reduces the need

for physical prototypes and helps ensure a finished mold that’s right

the first time, every time. 5. Collaborate on design reviews

The more minds a company can bring to bear on a challenge – and

the earlier it can leverage them – the faster it will arrive at the best possible solution. Today’s leading mold

and die makers are achieving this by leveraging design software that makes it possible for global communi-

ties to collaborate on design reviews over the Internet. They enable real-time visualization and review of the

3D product as it evolves, streamlining collaborative review and decision-making.

Instant collaborative tools include chat, snapshot, co-review and

co-design. Users can access contextual product and mold design and

manufacturing information, identify other contributors and collaborate

in real time. All review information is embedded in the product

design information. These collaborative tools accelerate the upfront

detection and resolution of design issues while enabling alternative

design studies and improving decision-making on product changes.

6. Produce CNC programs direct from CAD model using intelligent templates

Why waste time and resources translating design data for CNC programming when you can program direct

from the same data used to design the mold? Top mold and die companies are gaining competitive advan-

tage by leveraging best-in-class surface machining capabilities along with full associativity with the product

and mold design. CNC programs can be produced directly from intelligent templates, dramatically reduc-

ing machining time.

6

“CATIA makes everyone’s job

easier since we can visualize

how the many small parts of a

mold fit together.”

– Joaquim Silva,

Product Developer,

TJ Moldes

TJ M

old

es

“Our customers choose

T.A.P.E. every time because

they know they won’t get a

2D drawing or hand sketch

that’s going to give them

bogus data.”

– Bud Mohrman, President,

T.A.P.E. Inc.

T.A

.P.E

. In

c.

Eliminate collisions with advanced virtual preparation and simulation for machining.

Example of CNC program produced directly from the milling process using intelligent templates.

CNC programming capabilities include

a full set of high-end 2.5-, 3- and 5-axis

milling and drilling operations and

NURBS output for 5-axis machining.

Surface machining quality is improved

through accurate scallop calculation.

Collisions can be detected easily through

distance and band analysis. Automatic

detection and reworking of non-machined areas reduces cycle time. Accurate verification of the toolpath

includes simulation of material removal and analysis of the remaining material.

7. Re-use existing designs for new quotes

Quoting quickly and accurately is the key to winning business and

maintaining margins. Today’s most winning toolmakers leverage a

team collaboration environment that offers native access to virtual

product information directly within the design environment.

Users can store, structure and secure product data information and quickly locate existing designs with similar characteristics, facilitating the reuse of existing assets. This makes it possible to respond faster to bid requests with more accurate bids and avoid making the same mistakes twice. Users can also create workflows to automate processes, such as engineering change orders.

7

“With the automation

capabilities of CATIA V5,

NC programming time

for simple parts has been

reduced by 90%.”

– Hans Lauridsen, CEO,

Techno-Tool A/S

Tech

no-

Tool

A/S

The current business climate threatens the very existence of many mold and die companies. Companies

that plan to survive and thrive into the foreseeable future are moving now to improve their business proc-

esses to increase quality, avoid errors and reduce costs. They are utilizing

a single architecture for product design, mold tooling and manufacturing

to eliminate duplicated effort, improve communications and reduce the

potential for mistakes. Leveraging their valuable intellectual property by

embedding hard-learned best practices, customer standards and their

own standards into intelligent templates, mold and die companies can

ensure every design meets their exacting standards – and those of their

customers.

Companies that utilize this new approach are dramatically reducing the

time needed to design and build new molds and reducing the number

of issues that need to be addressed before manufacturing. As a result,

they are gaining a competitive edge that will help them compete effectively regardless of economic

conditions.

For more information, please visit: www.3ds.com/catiaformoldanddie

“With CATIA for Mold, we

have reduced our design

time from one month to

one week.”

– Jae-Deck Shin, CEO,

Woojin High-Tec

Woo

jin H

igh

-Tec

8

Conclusion

About Dassault Systèmes

As a world leader in 3D and Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) solutions, Dassault Systèmes brings value to more than 100,000 customers in 80 countries. A pioneer in the 3D software market since 1981, Dassault Systèmes develops and markets PLM applica-tion software and services that support industrial processes and provide a 3D vision of the entire lifecycle of products from concep-tion to maintenance to recycling. The Dassault Systèmes portfolio consists of CATIA for designing the virtual product - SolidWorks for 3D mechanical design - DELMIA for virtual production - SIMULIA for virtual testing - ENOVIA for global collaborative lifecycle management, and 3DVIA for online 3D lifelike experiences. Dassault Systèmes’ shares are listed on Euronext Paris (#13065, DSY.PA) and Dassault Systèmes’ ADRs may be traded on the US Over-The-Counter (OTC) market (DASTY).

For more information, visit http://www.3ds.com

For additional information, contact us at:Dassault Systèmes 900 Chelmsford Street, Lowell, Massachusetts 01851

978 442 2500 • 3DS.com

CATIA, DELMIA, ENOVIA, SIMULIA, SolidWorks and 3DVIA are registered trademarks of Dassault Systèmes or its subsidiaries in the US and/or other countries.