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- Vol.5: Suzuki Industry succeeds in visualizing spring-back
3D Digitizer User Reports
Measuring Instruments
3D Digitizer User Reports
Revolutionary press die technology
Vol.5: Suzuki Industry succeeds in visualizing spring-back
Suzuki Industry
(Ota, Gunma, Japan)
Diemaking that supplements experience and know-how with the latest digital tools
Suzuki Industry President Kota Suzuki
Founded in 1964, Suzuki Industry has specialized in press die design and production for over 40 years. In recent years, the company has been improving efficiency and meeting the needs of its automotive industry clients by making an all-out effort to improve its equipment and machinery. Last year it constructed a new office building and plant in the city of Ota, Gunma Prefecture, and it is currently actively promoting CIM (computer integrated manufacturing) for greater efficiency. These efforts provide a glimpse of the company’s aggressive, complacency-averse management approach that its president Kota Suzuki likes to characterize as "Always taking things one step further".
PAM-STAMP 2G
With high-tensile sheet steel becoming increasingly for automotive use common today, Kota Suzuki says that non-high-tensile dies outsourced to his company are becoming increasingly rare. This trend is creating more complex part-forming processes, so to improve product quality while adapting to today’s needs, Suzuki Industry was quick to install and use the PAM-STAMP 2G press-forming simulation system. "It’s unusual for a company of our size to install a simulation system," says Kota Suzuki, but it was a very natural move for a company that needs to meet the needs of major pressed-parts manufacturers. Suzuki Industry is eagerly employing such cutting-edge digital tools to supplement its existing resources—the experience of its skilled employees and its proprietary know-how. The company is finding that digital tools enable faster and more reliable decision-making, shorter delivery times and lower costs, helping to improve client trust.
CIM Group Leader Shuichi Suzuki
One of the issues Suzuki Industry had to tackle after installing PAM-STAMP 2G was how to find out if each pressed part had actually been manufactured as shown by the simulation. Says CIM Group Leader Shuichi Suzuki, "We need to beable to check simulation results for each process and whether the finished part was created the way we wanted." For this purpose, the company decided to install a Non-Contact 3-D Digitizer, and started researching which model to install.
Non-Contact 3-D Digitizer allows response matching to simulation results
Suzuki Industry installed Konica Minolta’s VIVID 9i Non-Contact 3-D Digitizer, and RapidForm 2006 Verifier 3-D shape inspection software. Initially, the company also considered installing an arm-type non-contact 3-D Digitizer, but were disappointed to discover during testing that it had too many point groups for the equipment to handle. They decided a camera-type model would be easier to use since it could measure many plane shapes at once. Says Kota Suzuki, "The price was lower than competitor models, and it could do everything we wanted to do." The company ultimately selected the outstanding cost performance of VIVID 9i. After installing the system, they started using it to measure trial pressed parts, using RapidForm 2006 afterwards to compare the parts to the CAD data. The system lets them quickly inspect shapes of trial parts, allowing what Shuichi Suzuki calls ‘response matching’ to simulation results. After each inspection, the error between inspection results and simulation results can be applied to simulation parameters, improving simulation precision. Once skeptical of press-forming simulations, the company is now a believer.
Trial press part measurement flow
Ability to visualize spring-back drastically shortens cycle from trial to die revision
The VIVID 9i enables immediate identification of which parts of dies are actually distorted, a function not possible with inspection tools. This ability enables accurate application of data into the die revision process. Shuichi Suzuki says that the ability to visualize spring-back in pressed parts has given the company the ability to make alterations without guesswork.
Since all areas of distortion can be identified in the trial process, the precision during feedback to the die has improved significantly. As a result, the cycle from trial to die revision that once required 7 or 8 repetitions (including overall revision), can in some cases now be reduced to about 3 repetitions of just partial revision only, he reports.
One-shot solutions through die design revision work
Revising anticipated amounts on ASU/MINT-p
Even if actual distortion locations can be identified during trial part verification, they must be smoothly applied to the die design process for a reduction in overall die production lead time to be possible. Suzuki Kogyo installed the ASU/MINT-p add-on software to the thinkdesign application to enable production of anticipated shapes without changing the overall curve configuration. It allows the company to apply the anticipated revision amounts identified by trial part verification smoothly to the die design.
Latest 3-D digital tools enable one-shot completion of the entire die production process:
Simulation through die designg ⇒ Trial pressingg ⇒ Trial part verificationg ⇒ Feedback to die design
Suzuki Industry’s press die production flow (one-shot completion)
Kota Suzuki says, "The latest digital tools such as Non-Contact 3-D Digitizers and simulators are ultimately nothing more than just tools. They're like a carpenter’s hammer, they only provide value when in the hands of skilled users such as our employees." It’s a statement that reveals the company’s high level of confidence in the workmanship they have developed out of the client trust they have built up over many years. This workmanship has added more to their corporate value than their carefully selected machinery and equipment ever could.
