Tool Engineering Service

Our tool engineering activity is a natural and complementary service to our hardware deliveries. Most inquiries require a thorough review of the nature problem in order to evaluate possible design solutions considering various boundary conditions. This engineering activity involves a number of basic tool calculations and CAD work, but in many cases we also need to undertake a comparative FEM analysis in order to obtain a more detailed understanding of the stress – strain behaviour in the tool.

It is often beneficial to add a material analysis of the failed dies to the above theoretical calculations and simulations. For example, we may examine the failed die as regards crack initiation point and development pattern, or how the hardness of the die has changed during its service period, or whether the existence of inclusions in the material can explain a premature die failure, etc.

STRECON prepares an Engineering Report according to a specific agreement with the client. The report may include technical drawings, written explanation of the tooling solution, major results from the FEM analysis, recommendations on die insert material, level of hardness, etc. as well as support regarding the actual tool handling and production testing.

The engineering work is based on standard software complemented with in-house developed material models, FEM codes, and internal analytical programmes. We have a long-term collaboration with the Danfoss Labs, the Risø National Laboratory in Denmark, the Hamburg based FEM software company Simufact, and a number of selected tool material suppliers and developers.