Shape optimization of sheet metal parts in a flexible production environment

The design of complex bending parts can be considered as a cyclic process of evaluating the manufacturing process and the making of design modifications. This procedure has to be applied when a complex workpiece cannot be manufactured with the available bending processes in its original design, because a bending sequence free of collisions could not be found or technical limits of the manufacturing process have been reached. Considering the application of many different combinational and flexible bending methods, a large number of design modifications are possible. Even a product designer with great experience is not able to imagine all those possibilities and therefore fails to use the existing manufacturing potential. In order to prevent the modifications from becoming a trial-and-error process, the product designer has to be assisted in the design-cycle. Therein an iterative refinement of the bent component guides the product designer to a workpiece, which fulfils all constraints and uses the whole manufacturing potential.