A knowledge-based parametric design system for drawing dies

The design of drawing dies is a very complex and knowledge-intensive process. This paper describes a knowledge-based parametric design system for drawing dies which requires only a minimum set of parameters to be set before it is able to complete the design of the main components of a die, such as upper dies, lower dies, and blank holders. This minimum set of parameters includes blank sizes, die faces, punch open lines, drawing strokes, and press data. This design system implemented on top of the Pro/E CAD software consists of a drawing die knowledge base, a subcomponent inferencer, a dimension calculator, a subcomponent generator, a system coordinator, and a user interface. We use the design of drawing dies for inner wheel house as a concrete example to show that our system can greatly improve the design quality while reducing the development time and cost.