Tooling Design

Tooling is a highly competitive industry segment under constant pressure to reduce cost and improve time to delivery. Tooling designers must quickly understand and react to a wide variety of customer needs. Limitations of customer-supplied files challenge today's toolmakers to deliver better products. The know-how to eliminate manufacturability problems and identify cost-saving modifications early in the process truly sets a tool designer apart.

The key to profitable contract manufacturing is the ability to generate quick and accurate quotes. KeyCreator enables tooling designers to determine both manufacturability and material costs without ever having to rebuild models from scratch. KeyCreator provides the power to modify and repair customer-supplied 3D models regardless of CAD software platform, design history or previous model constraints.

Draft angle analysis shows potential mold extraction problems in 3D

Once the tooling designer has prepared a model for manufacturing, the KeyCreator toolset helps define and select geometric features for rapid extraction of part shapes into inversely-shaped tooling models. The KeyCreator approach of trimming, splitting and stitching models is ideal for both model creation and integration of all types of solid, surface, wireframe and 2D data provided by customers. As the design progresses, KeyCreator makes it easy to react to customer changes or explore alternative ideas.

Review of runner, venting, and cooling systems in a 3D mold model

Key Creator provides an open and intuitive solution for designers and engineers who must rapidly explore, iterate, and solve manufacturability challenges - even when working with history-based models.

• Unique capacity to support 2D and 3D, solids and surface modeling with drafting and NC options.
• Quickly analyze models for certain geometry conditions, draft angles, undercuts and other problem areas
• Unique Prune and Graft functionality for extracting cavities, cores, and slides straight from imported geometry
• Recognize features for editing, model simplification, feature reuse and more
• Provides fast, cost-effective data exchange between companies and design teams

Using KeyCreator, tool makers benefit from the ability to import, refine and quickly iterate models. Simply put, the value of KeyCreator to create designs that can be manufactured helps tooling designers increase product quality and reduce costs. Kubotek solutions enable our customers to meet challenges head on and build processes to help their companies thrive in today's dynamic marketplace.

Also see: Mechanical Design  and Shape Creation