Tooling Overview for Transfer Die

A part’s tooling costs for transfer die depend, among other things, on the number of stations required to produce the part. The required number of stations depends roughly on the following factors:

• GCD proximity: GCDs that lie too close together must be made at different stations.

• GCD direction: GCDs that share the same direction that are not too close can often be made at the same station.

• Operation precedence: Operations that cannot be performed at the same time or that need to follow an order of precedence cannot be made at the same stage or station. For example, forming the primary form must occur with or before hole piercing, and a bend must be performed before any bend that lies between it and the main surface (see Main Surface for Transfer Die and LIIES_OUTSIDE Relation).

Based on the number-of-stations analysis, aPriori determines which features will be manufactured at each station. Once all features have been associated with a station, aPriori calculates the tool base and tool shop cost for the entire tool, based on the part size and feature set (including the holes, bends, and forms).

For Transfer Die and Offline Blanking, the tooling model estimates the number of parts that can be produced with a given tool before it wears to the point that it needs to be replaced. Based on that estimate, the cost model determines the number of tools required to manufacture the production volume specified in the Production Scenario tab of the Cost Guide, and accounts for that number of tools in total hard tooling cost.

Tool-life estimation is based on part material, and adjusted for tool material and tool coating type. For a given costing, either the formula Dependencies or Investment tab displays the number of tools assumed by tooling cost calculations.

Bill of material costs include the following:

• Die Blocks

• Die Shoes

• Punch Holders

• Top/Bottom Parallels

• Punch Pads

• Strippers

• Spring

• Hardware

• Guide Pins

• Punches

• Inserts

Labor costs include the following:

• Assembly

• CNC Machining

• CNC Programming

• Debug

• Design

• Drilling

• Grinding

• Lathe

• Milling

• Rework

• Sawing

• Wire EDM

See Tooling for Transfer Die for more information.