The road to the future is paved with Industry. As you take steps towards the future of your business, you’ll need to first recognize the foundation at your feet is Industry 4.0. We previously discussed "What is Industry 4.0 and Why Should You Care?" and today we're going to expand on that answer by taking a closer look at one of the key tenets of industry transformation: cloud computing technology.
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We’ve come to the end of the carving knife project on the 3DEXPERIENCE Platform. With this project, we’ve used tools available in the 3DEXPERIENCE Platform to process a design change of a carving knife from a corded version to a cordless version. Here is a summary of the tools we used, and how we were able to use them.
When a new product is developed, it is important to gain a clear understanding of how variables will impact production. Shop Floor Programmer helps us do that and is available inside of the 3DEXPERIENCE platform. It includes 2.5 and 3 Axis Milling operations, kinematic machine simulation, 3 + 2 Machining and Probing.
In the last blog, we discussed mold design. Today we are reviewing the features in Shop Floor Programmer that make it very easy to create the program for our carving knife handle as we program half of the mold for the handle that has been created.
Developing a tooling split can be an arduous process using lesser design tools. When using 3DEXPERIENCE, the workflow is very direct. With powerful mold tools built in, regardless of what access level you have in 3DEXPERIENCE SOLIDWORKS, you can efficiently create a tooling split when building molds. With our carving knife handle, this is no exception.
We reviewed the plastic injection process in our last installment. However, this part started in xShape and from that app we were able to streamline the creation of a very complicated shape. Today we are going to show how the mold tools can be easily utilized for functionality on this updated geometry.
Plastic Injection Engineer is a role on the 3DEXPERIENCE platform that allows the performing of fill analysis on plastic injection molded components. It will handle a simple part fill analysis to an entire mold study.
When we last visited our carving knife project, we learned about drop test simulation. In this installment, we will start with a simple part fill analysis to check gate location and determine if the part will fill in a mold. It will show us sink marks and venting locations as well. This will allow us to make any design changes before starting the mold design or cutting any tooling.
SIMULIA Structural Mechanics Engineer (SME) is one of the roles in the 3DEXPERIENCE Simulation product portfolio. This role allows the use of Explicit Dynamics solver for high-speed nonlinear analysis such as Impact Analysis and Drop Testing. Users can apply complex material models that are readily available in the material database or use the Material Calibration tool to import experimental material test data.
In our last session of this project, we reviewed 3D printing of this prototype. In this installment, we will walk through the use of drop test simulation.
Necessity is always a key driver in innovation, and with a global pandemic, the concept of remote work has transitioned from a periodic luxury to a full-blown necessity. Our company corporate structure is comprised of engineers, printer operators, managers and executives scattered throughout the east coast and Canada. The 3DEXPERIENCE platform provides a quick and easy way to collaborate with colleagues on a single project regardless of where they are located.
In our last installment, the design was passed between xShape and SOLIDWORKS to quickly make changes and arrive at a product ready for prototyping. Today we will be talking about how to easily 3D print from the 3DEXPERIENCE platform.
SOLIDWORKS xShape is an excellent modeling tool on the SOLIDWORKS 3DEXPERIENCE that is wonderful for creating designs that require organic shapes with very smooth transitions. This app allows industrial designers, digital artists and engineers to create innovative products in a new way, using a collaborative space.
In our last session,we updated the handle design using xShape. The geometry is fairly complex and it's not a native SOLIDWORKS file. We need to make this a usable form from a manufacturability standpoint by making the file visible in SOLIDWORKS so we can make changes quickly. With a simple reloading of the handle from the platform (in the SOLIDWORKS Connected app), our references are maintained and all that’s left for the mechanical engineer to do is to recheck for clearance and fit.
The 3DEXPERIENCE platform brings you a better design experience and improves cross-functional communication with your different teams. Often we must revise our designs. The ability to collaborate in real-time with issues and solutions is an incredible benefit to using a cloud-enabled platform.
In the last part of this project series, we discussed managing our data within the platform. However, during the design process, we noticed some interference between the handle and the internal components which needed to be resolved. Today in xShape, we will edit the original handle component to accommodate the motor and make some additional design changes.