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The objective of this work package is to develop a software package which assists the tool designer in all aspects of tooling design beside the geometry manipulation. Thus this software will be used complementary to a CAD system and will cover all process and material related aspects which influence the tool's geometry. It will provide a structure for performing calculations on filling of the mould and will provide a connection to the technology database.
A first prototype software called 'Tooling Instructor' has been developed, tested by the partners and presented to the public on EuroMold 2004.
The software is a Java application connected to relational database. It is conceived to be used in conjunction with a CAD system.
The driving concept behind the Tooling Instructor is Case Based Reasoning. Initially the desired casting is characterised regarding the required tooling through a set of material and geometry attributes. The attributes can be prioritised in order to search for a particular set of reference solutions. A search engine retrieves information on previously solved tooling designs according to a degree of similarity to the actual casting. A reference solution can then be selected by the user.
Decision support is offered at the tool design stage. The software guides the user through all major steps of tooling design offering information from the database and performing calculations on feeding and gating automatically. The workflow follows a tool design process model. Each tool design decision is documented in the database and then is turned into geometry in the CAD.
At the end all design decisions are collected in a design protocol which serves as an explanation for tooling features occuring in the tooling CAD file.
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