Minor design changes to the sheet metal always occur during production start-up. This can be, for example, the optimization of a connection point for easier assembly of the sheet metal. If the resulting tool changes are implemented manually, it is often not possible to achieve the desired geometries with sufficient accuracy. In the present application, a circular embossing is too close to the edge of the sheet metal, which leads to an irregular trim edge. This problem is solved by extending the embossing to the edge of the sheet.

The time pressure was high, as the customer wanted modified sheets for the next delivery. However, the tool was only available one week before the pressing date. In addition, we only had access to CAD data for the sheet metal, but not for the tool itself, which meant that no milling planning could be carried out in advance. A conventional process would not have been possible without transporting the tool to a large milling machine and the schedule could not have been met. In addition, the milling volume was small. On a conventional machine, the set-up times would have been higher than the milling time, which would have been an inefficient use case of the expensive machine.

Flange - before