Stretch Forming Tooling

The following Stretch Forming processes employ hard tooling:

• Stretch Form

• Bench Operation (for manual forming)

• Router

Tooling costs for each process can be specified with setup options. See Setup Options for Stretch Forming Cycles, Setup Options for Bench Operation, and Setup Options for Router.

For both Stretch Form and Router, the default tooling cost is the product of three factors:

• Cost per unit area: specified by the following cost model variables:

o For Stretch Form: defaultStretchFormToolingCost ($23250/m2 in starting point VPEs)

o For Router: defaultRouterJigToolingCost ($4420/m2 in starting point VPEs)

• Total area of the part’s forms of type EMBOSS.

• Region multiplier: adjusts for regional price variance. Specified by the cost model variable regionMultiplier.

For the Manual Forming operation of the Bench Operation process, the default tooling cost in starting point VPEs is 20% of the Stretch Form tooling cost. In general, it is the product of the following:

• Stretch Form tooling cost (see above)

• Adjustment factor: specified by the cost model variable defaultManualFormingToolingMultiplier (0.2 in starting point VPEs)

By default, tooling cost calculations assume that a single tool lasts long enough to produce the production volume specified in any scenario. VPE administrators can customize the default number of tools assumed for the current production scenario. Users can override the default on a per-part basis and specify the number of tools. The cost model accounts for the specified number of tools in total hard tooling cost.

For more information, see the following:

• Number of Forming Block Tools Required (for Hydroform Cycles)

• Number of Counter Form Tools (for Hydroform Cycles)

• Number of Tools Required (for Bench Operation)

• Number of Tools Required (for Router)

For a given costing, either the formula Dependencies or Investment tab displays the number of tools assumed by tooling cost calculations.