Open AccessCAD-designers of aluminum extrusion die set have to make many decisions on tooling type, construction etc. by experience, their own metal flow sense and special methods of tooling design produced by manufacturer. There was created some software products for designing the planar die set. In addition, metal flow simulation programs using three-dimensional die set models as initial data were developed.
However, it is a difficult task to create a high-quality solid die set model from scratch shortly. This led to three-dimensional die set parametrization systems development. QForm Extrusion Die Designer is one of them. Based on QExDD the automated design technique of die set elements is proposed. It takes into consideration the volumetric metal flow factor and design experience. In addition, it is aimed at CAD-CAE connection with QForm-Extrusion program.
The proposed technique consists of two stages: preliminary designing and correction cycle. The first stage is to prepare profile contour and choose the first die set construction version. The algorithms implemented at this stage use only geometrical data, particularly profile contour. A received three-dimensional die set model is transferred to the second stage for iterative construction modification based on extrusion simulation results. As a result of automated design process there is the die set parametrical model that is ready for production and further extrusion test.
The first version of the proposed technique is implemented using the QExDD software program and is now under tests in companies of Russia and UK.