Forging Enhancements
aP Pro 2025 R1 provides the following updates to the Closed-Die Forging manufacturing process model:
Please note that this is the second incremental release in a series of planned enhancements to the Closed Die Forging manufacturing process model. Additional enhancements will be released in aP Pro 2025 R1 SP1. Customers who already are using a configured Closed-Die Forging model may wish to delay upgrading their manufacturing process model until these additional enhancements are available. Please consult your aPriori account team or aPriori Support for planning purposes.
New Vertical Mechanical Press Process
The Forging process group now provides a Vertical Mechanical Press routing in addition to the Hammer process routing that was available in previous releases.
Vertical mechanical press is the most widely used closed die forging process in industry. Mechanical presses apply consistent, controlled pressure to a workpiece and offer greater control over the shaping process than a hammer press. The Vertical Mechanical Press process now is available in aP Pro 2025 R1 (with manufacturing model version CMV 260) and provides robust logic to select a machine capable of pressing the part and determine the resulting cycle time of the process.
The aPriori 2025-03 Regional Data libraries provide a broad range of mechanical press machines ranging from 1,250 to 10,000 tons of press force. These presses are equipped with an automated transfer mechanism to move the part between die stations, so a single operator can supervise the machine.
The process model determines the required press force based on a calculated flow stress, projected platter area (the projected area of part and flash combined), part complexity and force distribution across multiple die stations. Note that by default, the manufacturing process assumes that three die stations are needed to forge the part (controlled by the cost model variable mechanicalPressNumberOfStations) and that parts are forged one at a time (only one station is occupied at any given time).
The process model determines the stroke rate of the process based on the part complexity with a check to ensure the stroke rate is not larger than the max capable for the machine
Note: the new Vertical Mechanical Press process does not yet estimate the cost of tooling, and this routing is not automatically evaluated by aPriori. The process can be manually selected in the Routing Editor to determine piece part cost for the Mechanical Press routing. In the next release, tooling cost will be added to the manufacturing process model to allow fully burdened cost to be calculated, and the routing will be evaluated automatically.
Improved Virtual Stock Selection
aPriori 2025 R1 updated and enhanced the stock selection logic for Forging, helping to ensure aPriori selects a reasonable stock.
aPriori 2025 R1 extends the stock selection logic introduced in the previous release to virtual stock selection. Note, “real stocks” refer to stock that are defined in the digital factory with defined dimensions and cost per stock, “virtual stocks” refer to stock dimensions that are created by the simulation and calculate the cost from the raw material cost in the digital factory.
Previously aPriori evaluated a single virtual stock in Forging; now aPriori evaluates up to three different virtual stocks and selects the cheapest one. This change significantly increases the robustness of the model and accuracy of stock selection.
Digital Factory administrators can control the number of stocks evaluated by changing the value of the manufacturing model variable virtualMaterialStocksListLimit. Set the value to 1 to match the previous behavior and evaluate only one stock.
As with real stocks , aPriori determines a list of valid virtual stocks, and then sorts them in order of estimated utilization before evaluating the requested number of stocks. Note that estimated utilization and calculated utilization can vary depending on the routing being evaluated.
Added Ability to Define Mult and Virtual Stock Dimensions
aPriori 2025 R1 added the ability for the end user to specify the Mult and Virtual Stock Dimensions.
aPriori 2025 R1 added three new process setup options to the Material Stock node, allowing users to set specific virtual stock dimensions and mult lengths.
The new setup options, Virtual Stock Width/Diameter, Virtual Mult Length, and Virtual Stock Length, are shown below:
When a user overrides any of the new process setup options, the manufacturing process model uses a virtual material stock. To use a real stock item with specific dimensions for the estimate, select the desired stock item from the Material Stock section of the Material Selection dialog.