Tool design is team work
The original 3D license in the tool design department is still used to convert CAD models from product design into IGES files and to post-process them should problems occur during conversion. In 95 percent of cases, the transfer of data to TopSolid works perfectly, as Wendel says, and if not, then gaps between surfaces can often be closed by modifying the tolerance settings.

TopSolid or TopSolid'Mold are then used to create a tool out of the component geometry. But before this can be done, the designers and the tool makers must sit down together and specify the following details: the general make-up of the tool, the orientation of the component in the mold, the part line, the location of the injection nozzles and the side the object is to ejected, the position of the ejector pin and the slide assemblies, insofar as the use of undercuts makes the latter necessary to eject the object from the mold. The product designers may also be called upon to indicate how it may be possible to simplify the tool by modifying the component that is being manufactured. During tool design, the designers must take into account which machines are to be used to form which components. "Obviously, it makes a difference whether I want to mill or wire EDM an insert", explains Erhard Lorenz.

The TopSolid'Mold software provides a multitude of automatic functions which makes designing tools a lot less complicated. The program is able to calculate the shrinkage of a model, optimize its position within the mold and to calculate part lines and areas that would not be ejected from the mold. The design of moveable function groups such as slide assemblies and mold locks can be simplified by the definition of parametric relationships between the elements of a object. The software also automatically checks the component and other elements of the mold for collisions, a function which provides the user with a high level of confidence particularly when designing a cooling circuit.

At Legrand, these automated functions are either not used, or are only used selectively, as the users have many years experience. "You simply know how a particular plastic behaves at a particular temperature and define the shrinkage rates according to that", explains Michael Wendel. He is particularly impressed by the excellent support for standard objects and normalized parts. To this end TopSolid'Mold provides an extensive 3D library containing components from Hasco, Strack and other respected manufacturers. The company-specific standards already created in the parametric CAD system were easily transferred to the new system using the IGES interface.