Commodity Codes Suck

Posted by stephens on May 26, 2010 in Engineering Decisions, Rants | 2 comments

Why is it that, when I either process a stamping or setup a formability simulation for any company in any industry on any continent, I get some proprietary commodity code for a material specification from the customer? Commodity codes suck, and I will tell you why: they are completely useless. Every company that needs sheet steel to manufacture products buys the...

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The Point

Posted by stephens on Mar 10, 2010 in Engineering Decisions, Rants | 0 comments

I continue to be amazed at how some highly educated people miss the point. Case in point: I had a customer that was experiencing splitting on a stamping. Certain coils would run fine. Others would have 90%+ failure. I get their process data and run a formability simulation. The result? A good stamping. No risk of failure. I then ask for tool architecture data....

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Skin It

Posted by stephens on Oct 13, 2009 in Rants, Tips & Techniques | 0 comments

Forming simulation software needs a zero thickness sheet for meshing purposes. Oftentimes, the designer will have an IGES or STEP file of the product data at full material thickness. We have to perform a step known as “skinning” to get just the inside of metal surface in order to setup and run a simulation. For you AutoForm users, [Disclaimer: I am...

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