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Sheet Metal

Cost impact for upgrades to aPriori Professional 2021 R1 SP1

Geometry or Cost Engine Changes that Could Impact Configured Digital Factories

The following changes might impact costing, even for Digital Factories that use earlier cost model versions.

  • Chamfers: Some edges with very shallow or very steep chamfers are now given Edge Type Chamfer instead of Sharp or Not Supported. This can affect operation assignment. Costs may increase slightly due to the assignment of operations to previously unassigned Edge GCDs. If you do not use the latest cost model version, in rare cases an angled edge may be assigned a bevel cutting operation that is in fact infeasible due to limits on the machine’s bevel head angle.

Bug Fixes or Small Improvements to Prior Cost Model Versions

The following changes might impact costing for Digital Factories that use earlier cost model versions.

  • NO IMPACT

Cost Model Changes that Do Not Affect Configured Digital Factories

The following changes do not affect costings with Digital Factories that use earlier cost model versions. The changes are available only in the latest cost model version.

  • Bevel Cutting Machine Selection: This release adds the following machine feasibility requirement for the Plasma Bevel Cutting operation on chamfered edges: Machine has sufficient power to create the part’s chamfers, based on the current material and the distance through which the machine must cut in order to create the chamfers. As result of this new requirement, Plasma Cut machine selection may change compared to the previous release.

    Note:

    This release adds bevel cutting operations to the Fiber Laser Cut, Laser Cut, OxyFuel Cut, and Waterjet Cut processes, whose machines provide various power ranges. These operations are disabled by default.

  • Bevel Cutting Feasibility: This release adds the following feasibility requirements for the Plasma Bevel Cutting operation on chamfered edges:

    • Bevel head angle required to produce the chamfer is no greater than the value of the cost model variable maxPlasmaBevelCuttingAngle (50° in starting point Digital Factories)
    • For chamfered edges of holes, there is sufficient distance across the hole to allow for kerf clearance with the required bevel head angle. As a result of this change, some shallow-chamfer edges previously assigned Plasma Bevel Cutting may now be assigned Chamfering from the Machining process group.

    Note:

    This release adds bevel cutting operations to the Fiber Laser Cut, Laser Cut, OxyFuel Cut, and Waterjet Cut processes. These operations allow varying maximum bevel head angles. The operations are disabled by default. This release also removes the requirement that the operation be applied only to edges on one side of the part. Bevel cutting now can be assigned to both top and bottom edges of a part. As a result of this change, some edges that were previously unassigned or assigned to Chamfering from Machining process group may now be assigned Plasma Bevel Cutting if bevel cutting is enabled.

  • Bevel Cutting Material Utilization: This release accounts for the part spacing required to provide kerf clearance for chamfered blank edges. For a part whose blank has very shallow chamfers, material cost may increase significantly due to increased part spacing and decreased utilization.

  • Bevel Cutting Cycle Time: This release improves the accuracy of cycle time for the Plasma Cut process. The cost model now applies different bevel cutting feed rates for small features and large features. The cost model also corrects an error in the aggregation of times across bevel cutting operations. As a result of these changes, cycle times increase for certain parts, compared to the previous release.

  • Standard Press Routing (impacts Cycle Time and Hard Tooling Cost): This release corrects an issue for rectangular sheet metal parts with some formed features that use the Standard Press routing. For these parts, a blanking operation was assigned even though just a Shear operation was sufficient.

    As a result of this fix, cycle time decreases by one press cycle plus the corresponding press setup time (typically 0.5 hours) amortized over the part production volume. Tooling cost decreases by roughly $8500 for smaller parts and $21,000 for larger parts. Specific cycle time and tooling cost reductions depend on part size, material type, and material thickness.

  • Part Spacing for Turret Press Routing (impacts Material Utilization): For the Turret Press routing, this release increases the default part spacing between blanks to 6.35mm (to correspond to the default Nibbling tool diameter). In the previous release, the default spacing was 6.00mm with true-part nesting and 0 with rectangular nesting.

    As a result of this change, compared to the previous release, material utilization may decrease and material cost may increase by a small amount, particularly with rectangular nesting. In a set of test parts, fewer than one third were affected, and among those affected, the number of parts per sheet decreased by around 1.2%.