FTI Releases FormingSuite 2019 Feature Pack 1

Forming Technologies (FTI) the developer of solutions for design, simulation, planning and costing of sheet metal components, announced the worldwide release of the FormingSuite 2019 Feature Pack 1. Designed for sheet metal cost estimators, design engineers, tooling designers, and advanced planning engineers in the automotive, aerospace, consumer product and electronics industries, this feature pack introduces numerous enhancements that ensure the best quality results and performance for all users.

Overall changes to the software’s workbenches and processes allow for Material Utilization (MUL) and Design for Manufacturability (DFM) concepts to fully be realized. These concepts help customers reduce material waste through virtual tryouts replacing test stampings and addressing formability issues that could threaten the integrity of a part long before the part makes it to the shop floor. New blanking processes in the software allow parts to be nested and created faster, and with much less waste than before, by considering multiple factors in the stamping process. Changes to pilot holes and addendum features integrate real world solutions into the digital process, allowing for increased accuracy, and robust parts and operations.

With this latest release, FormingSuite’s ProcessPlanner module continues to add support for the most specialized processes in sheet metal forming.  The Line Die Plan workbench now allows users to detail the process for blanking in multiple operations (for both inline and offline blanking). This new capability improves the visual description of the blanking process as well as the die load, die cost, die size and die weight calculations.  New options for the calculation of cam costs increase flexibility and provide more precise estimates for custom and standard cams for progressive dies and line dies.  Rounding out the changes to this workbench, a new display option in the ProgDie Process summary display shows the die size along with the process layout.

The COSTOPTIMIZER module now boasts substantial improvements in nesting solver speed as well as two new display options to show carrier condition and the 3D part along with the layout.  Cost Optimization of nesting layouts now allows users to choose if the part is cropped while maintaining the addendum offset, or if the addendum is cut without affecting the part. This change gives users the tools needed to effectively evaluate material cost savings opportunities on parts formed with addendum. Extending upon FormingSuite’s unique capabilities for introducing and evaluating web and carrier geometry, the pilot hole tool now provides the option of adding material around pilot holes as is common in real world strip designs. This allows engineers to ensure the integrity of their strip layouts in the software and on the shop floor.

Finally, significant updates have been made to trimming in FastIncremental. Automatic mesh refinement during trimming ensures that results of trim operations are precise. Automatic trimming now provides quicker solutions and more accurate results.

FormingSuite 2019 Feature Pack 1 is now available for customers from FTI’s website forming.com.

About Hexagon’s Manufacturing Intelligence Division

Hexagon is a global provider of sensor, software and autonomous solutions. Hexagon has approximately 20,000 employees in 50 countries and net sales of approximately 3.8bn EUR. Learn more at hexagon.com.

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