Adding Value by Advancing Metal Forming Technology

The metal forming industry is responding to changing technical and commercial demands of customers and increasingly stringent legislative restrictions. In addition, on demand delivery requires lead times having to contract. Also Original Equipment Manufacturers are demanding deliveries just-in-time on changeable schedules and for many products batch quantities have become smaller than they were a few years ago. Thus, lead times must be shortened. To meet these challenges, in the metal forming industry, the rate at which new and existing process technologies and production practices are being developed is increasing. Computer-aided design and manufacturing systems have been allied to computer process simulation, to form powerful Cloud based, knowledge-based tools for producing parts right-first-time through identifying the customers’ needs. The purpose of this paper is to illustrate the contribution made by the authors to enhance the added value of metal formed parts, through advancing scientific process knowledge and developing software to support computer-aided manufacture.