Problem addressed

The European sheet-metal working industry (ca. 300 SME’s operating a press shop, employing over 40.000 people) makes extensive use of press operations such as deep drawing and stretching of mass-produced parts. This industry is experiencing strong competition from low labour cost countries on both high production volumes (> 10.000 pieces) and low production volumes (<10.000 pieces).
With high production volumes the competition is met (and often won) by high-speed presses and highly automated operations with tooling made from metal (i.e. primarily steel and cast iron which is shaped by milling, grinding and polishing). The costs for these tools range from 5,000 Euro for simple parts, like a shallow cup, to more than 250,000 Euro for more complex parts, like a car bonnet.
In the low production series the conventional way of preparing/manufacturing the tooling cannot be applied as the tooling costs are too high and the lead-time is too long. In low production series the tooling cost can go up to 80 – 90 % of the final product costs, with a lead-time which can go up to 6 months. Much of this work is therefore lost to low labour cost countries. Most large volume products however start life as low volume products, thus threatening the European large volume market in the long run.
This project aims to reverse the incapability to effectively compete in the low production volumes market by making press working more economical for small volume production.

Expected impact

The Smart Tool project aims to develop an integral smart tooling technology for sheet metal forming operations based on non-conventional tooling materials such as wood, low melting point metals and resins. Target area is in low-volume, high quality and flexible production (10 – 10,000 parts) of thin (0.5 to 2 mm) sheet-metal products (aluminium, low carbon steel, stainless steel) obtained by deep drawing, stretching and rubber-pad forming.
The industrial target is to reduce both costs and lead-time for the tooling by at least 40% as compared to conventional tools. The project aims to introduce the to be developed smart tooling technology in the metal sheet processing industry, decrease the time to market of low production products by at least 65 %, whilst reducing tooling costs by 50 %.
It is expected that within 1 – 2 years after the project the involved end user SME will have fully adopted the developed know-how and technology, and that the first sheet-metal products will have been made.

Problem addressed

The following tasks are to be accomplished within the Smart Tool this project. First to investigate selected alternative tooling materials concerning their manufacturing and in-service behaviour and incorporating this acquired knowledge into a predictive model. It will offer the specification of standard tooling layout, offering predictive modelling for the optimal selection (technical and economical) of tool material and its optimal fabrication route (including product design, required lead-time and expected production volume).
Secondly to develop an add-on system (hardware and software) for the tooling decision support system that is capable of converting product dimensions into tooling dimensions. Thirdly to improve the surface finishing techniques for making tools made of non-conventional materials (i.e. polymers, wood, biomaterials, resins and low melting point alloys). The provisional targets are a reduction of manual labour with 80% and improved quality in terms of uniformity and smoothness.
And finally an industrial validation of the developed predictive model (decision support system) and the developed improved techniques by real production tests. The expected final achievement of the Smart Tool project is the ability to design and develop product-specific and cost-effective tools made of non-conventional materials for low volume production of sheet-metal products.