A computer-aided-design system for forming processes

The evolution of modern technology demands ever-increasing international competitiveness of manufacturing processes and products, requiring less design and manufacturing costs. Tn order to achieve this goal the design and manufacturing engineers work together as a team to come up with an economical solution meeting given constraints. As a first-step solution, new materials and processes or technologies to be applied will be sought with the help from a computer-aided-design system that is based on either artificial intelligence techniques or numerical simulation tools. Some issues involved with this approach in developing forming processes of multi-stage forming, bar rolling, rolling, injection molding, and compression molding, are discussed in this paper. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science S.A. All rights reserved.