think3 Introduces First-of-its-Kind Technology That Automates Tooling Design Modifications Needed to Compensate for Springback With Greater Speed and Accuracy

Leading Automotive Stamping Suppliers Seeing Up to 50% Efficiency Gains

CINCINNATI, June 9 /PRNewswire/ -- think3 Inc., a leading supplier of product development solutions, today, announced a new computer-aided design tool, thinkcompensator(TM), to help automotive OEMs and suppliers address "springback." Springback is a condition that occurs when materials, such as high-strength steel, partially return to their original shapes after being stamped-making them unusable for their intended application.

With thinkcompensator, engineers can now automatically bridge the gap between finite element analysis results that compensate for springback and the actual modification of tooling design required to modify the shape quickly and accurately before production. Automating this process represents a significant time savings for engineers who manually integrate FEA results into the modification of tooling design. In addition, thinkcompensator maintains the same surface structure as the original model, so design integrity remains intact throughout the entire production process.

"The industry has come a long way with FEA tools that accurately predict what a shape will look like after springback. The problem has been that the FEA process is separate from the design process, so engineers spend a huge amount of time rebuilding and modifying geometry to compensate surfaces," said Kristine Sturgeon, Director of Marketing, think3. "It's one of those mandatory evils in springback compensation that requires time and trial and error to get it right for production. That's where thinkcompensator comes in; it's the final piece of the compensation puzzle, so that engineers don't have to do all of that manual labor. It's completely automated."

Leading Tooling Companies See Significant Time and Productivity Savings Using thinkcompensator

Christy Industries, Division of Magna International, a premiere draw-die developer for automotive OEMs and Tier Ones, beta tested thinkcompensator for the past 5 months in partnership with think3. The 50-year old company is focused on continuing to differentiate itself in a highly-competitive global market with methods to compress delivery timeframes without compromising quality. "Advanced high-strength steel materials are being applied to the automotive segment rapidly, and we must continue to tune our analysis and design methods since these materials respond so differently," said Dr. Boris Shulkin, Director of Engineering Service at Christy Industries, Division of Magna International. "The better we predict behavior in a virtual model, the more efficient we are on the manufacturing floor. The number of the springback compensation loops we are able to run through simulation plays an important role in the accuracy of die compensation results."

"Traditionally, we would take FEA results and compensate the die surfaces through a manual process in CAD. Using thinkcompensator, we automated these tasks and compressed the time from days down to hours," said Dr. Shulkin. "Every step where we can use technology to automate processes with improved quality translates into driving time and cost out of the overall cost of products." To put this into perspective, an average automotive die tool set costs approximately $500,000. Tool corrections for a single recut can run between 10 to 20% of the tooling costs and slow down the process during critical phases of the production schedule.

"Our advanced R&D team has been working with companies such as Christy and Atlas Tool to develop the technology bridge that has been missing for so long in springback compensation," said Sturgeon. "We've also used data and input from Mazda Motor Corporation, who combined think3 technology with their internal processes in solving for springback in their die and mold group. As a result, thinkcompensator is a truly customer-driven, customer-tested, customer-validated tool."

Atlas Tool, a leading supplier of stamping dies and prototype parts for automotive stamping customers, headquartered in Roseville, MI, was also a thinkcompensator beta customer. The tooling engineers at Atlas used the application as the bridge for creating compensated surfaces for the die. "Using thinkcompensator, we realized a 50% improvement in compensated data quality and a 30% improvement in processing time," said Mark Schmidt, President of the 44-year-old company. "We've put a tool into the hands of our highly-skilled and experienced analysis team that eliminates a lot of the manual, repetitive labor needed traditionally for data compensation. Any time we can automate a CAD function is a leap in productivity and quality. In turn that means high quality tools, and it allows us to compress our time to market for customers."

How thinkcompensator Works

Building on think3's powerful global-shaped modeling technology, thinkcompensator bridges the gap between FEA predictions and optimized tooling design. thinkcompensator automates the process, saving time, replacing tedious manual labor and maintaining the same surface structure (topology) as the original surface model.

Using thinkcompensator with FEA data reduces user interaction, eliminating the need for engineers to spend time rebuilding geometry to compensate surfaces. thinkcompensator speeds the process, allowing engineers to create better and additional design and iterations so that materials can be correctly cut the first time.

thinkcompensator works in three simple steps: - FEA information is read into thinkcompensator and the compensated FEA mesh becomes the target of an automated process - The user determines the desired accurac - The modification is performed globally with the push of a button

The user can also check and filter the FEA information or restrict the full transformation if, for example, undercuts were introduced. Using thinkcompensator's API-COM interface users can adapt the application to other manufacturing techniques as well, including plastic injection molding.

About think3 Inc.

think3 provides innovative, next-generation industrial design solutions for the industrial design industry and is a leading supplier of product development solutions to mid-sized manufacturers worldwide. Customers include Honda, BMW, Mazda, Michael Graves Design and Alessi. Overall, the company enables more than 5,000 manufacturers to achieve dramatic gains in competitiveness and profitability by optimizing their product development process. think3's best-of-class products, services and unique business delivery model lower manufacturers' risks and remove barriers to successful implementation. With headquarters in Cincinnati and offices throughout Europe, Asia and North America, the privately held company has been leading innovation for more than 20 years. 

www.think3.com

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