Development Of System For Complete Process Simulation Of Sheet Forming Based On Pro/ENGINEER Platform

CAE has been grown up and widely used in auto and aerospace industry. But in thehome appliance and hard ware industry, there still exists a considerable upgrading space inthe application. The main reason is some problems in CAE software. For example, thedifficulty of CAE increases the learning cost of the designer; meanwhile, the way of datatransmission between CAD and CAE results in data degradation. Aiming at theseproblems, we develop the Forming Simulation Application (FSA), which is a newgeneration of sheet metal forming simulation system completely based on Pro/E Wildfireplatform. FSA system realizes whole process simulation, including the effects of gravity,pressure-process simulation, drawing, trimming, springback and so on, and realized theseamless integration of CAD/CAE, avoided the data loss in precision in the process oftransmission. The publication of FSA is good for improving the design and production andrealizing the analysis of the driven design.The work of this paper is supported by National Natural Science Foundation of Chinaproject (NO.50905067) and National NC State Special Projects (No.2010ZX04014-072).This topic designs and develops the first complete process sheet metal forming simulationsystem.This article analyses the development of Numerical simulation of sheet metalforming technology, especially the whole process simulation. On the basis of the researchof the integrated way of CAD/CAE, we judge the tendency of the CAD/CAE integration,and ensure the subject direction.With reference to the character of Typical sheet metal parts, we do the demand andfunctional analysis of the FSA system. In accordance with aforementioned analysis, wedesign the frame, workflow and data structure of the FSA and discuss Pro/Toolkit, the second development tools of Pro/E. System development framework of FSA is also builtbased on the system operation mode and development process.To the key technology of the FSA’s development, such as whole process simulation,parametric association and automatic assembly, we have done intensive study. What’smore, we develop process manager, parameterization of feature and mesh, and Multi Toolassembly with Animation. FSA system realized can provide parameterized simulation insheet metal stamping for the whole process.FSA system realized the seamless integration with Pro/E, can build well finiteelement model. Meanwhile FSA system can link with Solver and post process, testing thesimulated result, which proves the valuable significance of FSA system.