Neumayer Tekfor develops and produces components and assemblies for the automotive industry. Their product line is divided into transmission, engine, driveline, fastener and chassis. The products developed and produced are manufactured with different kind of methods, mainly warm/cold forming and ring/wedge rolling. To reach all the requirements needed, Neumayer utilized Simufact.forming to perform preliminary analysis, evaluation and optimization of the planned forming process.
The design of a normal process development often starts with a customer’s inquiry and a corresponding detailed drawing of the requested component. Based on this, a blank-component drawing is made. Measures, edges, conditions and materials are specified.
The cost is calculated after finishing the blank-component drawing. This includes the material required, machines needed and respective hour rates. The simulation is used to get detailed information about the press forces and to evaluate whether the selected forming process is realizable. Process simulation is used very early during an offer calculation, even before the first part is forged. This leads to significantly improved process comprehension, which can be achieved without even starting a machine or using material. If the costs for a process layout with and without process simulation are compared, a 1:10 ratio will be the result.
The simulation also affects the product quality at Neumayer Tekfor. They are able to design and produce much more complex components than before, inquiries which were too critical to realize 5-6 years ago can now be systematically designed and realized with simulation at minimal risk.
Engineering is not possible without the utilization of forming simulation. Critical areas on the product can be recognized early, feasibility studies can be done without using real prototypes and, more often than not, cost reduction can be achieved for running production because of forming simulation.
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