New features and updates have been added to our Rapid Forge Design™ (RFD) software! Rapid Forge Design™ is an automated tool for fast and reliable design of 2-piece, closed-die impression forgings. The software reads the final part geometry and automatically designs a forging according to accepted industry guidelines and user inputs. The new features include a Blocker shape design module and a GUI-based domain specific CAD system.
Below are the improvements made in the latest RFD update.
RFD Blocker Design:
- Use global operations, not detailed surface manipulations, for less engineering time
- Improved volume balance by keeping the material volume close to necessary minimums—preventing the gain or loss of volume unless needed
- Introduction of the central material volume smoothing function which smooths rough surfaces left by certain operations, like “create swells” and “rib/web rebalance”
- Operations can now run sequentially, or one at a time, to explore the contribution of each operation to the overall result
The latest updates also introduce a GUI-based, domain-specific CAD system for forging design, which improve the overall workflow in the following ways:
- Faster, less tedious impression die forging design
- More accurate customer quoting potential to streamline your business development process
- Advanced automatic feature generation for fillets, corners, drafted and non-drafted cover, part orientation, planar or lock-die parting lines, automatic draft matching, convex periphery
- Introduction of automatic gutter geometry.
Development of Rapid Forge Design™ will continue into the future with even more tools to help forging suppliers and forging consumers/OEMs. Planned features include feeder webs, retract flanges and retract perimeter, and rim movement (for forged wheels).
Rapid Forge Design™ is available for free download from our website. If you have any further questions about RFD and how it can help you, please feel free to contact us.