Engineering instead of trial and error
Tool development, feasibility analyses and manufacturing automation based on the exact mathematical mapping of geometric and kinematic parameters produce accurate, reproducible and interpretable results.
PTM – Production simulation as an essential component of production automation
The virtual twin of your workpiece or tool is created before the first chip is removed. With a focus on precision and gear cutting tool manufacturing as well as gears and rotationally symmetrical workpieces, PTM - Precision Tool Manufacturing - embodies all relevant manufacturing processes in a virtual machine, executable on any standard PC. Without wasting valuable resources such as manpower, material or machine time, your part geometry is created at your desk. The process parameters can be varied and optimized. An extremely short computing times also support meticulous detailed investigations before you go into real production with the final data.
PTM is our answer to the high technical and economic challenges of tool and process development of our time.
With PTM you play in the premier league. The benefits are obvious:
- You manufacture reproducible high-quality products by precisely mapping the entire process chain from design to quality-controlled production (ClosedLoop).
- You minimize the development costs and the use of resources on the basis of tailored feasibility analyses.
- You gain in technical and organizational planning reliability.
- You reduce throughput times and - associated with this - also your delivery times.
- You get a high level of customer satisfaction.
How PTM works
PTM is a modularly structured building block system. At its core, the software consists of a library of kinematic models that precisely map the degrees of freedom and axis movements of the respective manufacturing processes. You specify which modules your PTM system consists of, based on your workpiece range and machines.
In the sense of a work sequence way of thinking, you select the required precision parts - workpieces and tools - and link them to the desired machining processes. On this basis, the software now calculates the shape and/or path of the tool.
The simulation of the manufacturing process with the calculated tool and the associated manufacturing parameters immediately provides information about any feasibility problems that may arise. The results serve as a basis for parameter variations, and once after process optimization has been completed, PTM transfer the data to real production.
Clear and instant results in a short time
PTM convinces with its extremely short response times for the design of tools, parameter variations and also for the manufacturing simulation including the graphical presentation of results up to the generation of 3D models that can be further processed. 2D control graphics appear instantly - a geometrically exact 3D model (3D solid in STEP format) of a worm gear hobber, for example, is created in about two minutes.
User friendlyness
he software takes you by the hand in every phase of the calculation process: It checks your input data for completeness and plausibility, analyzes and visualizes calculation results and highlights critical areas in color. Reverse calculations - for example from the calculated geometry to the expected actual contour - provide you with an additional, graphically supported control option. And by replacing, varying or adjusting individual parameters, you can perform limit analyses and optimize your processes.
PTM enables:
- to detect and avoid design and adjustment errors in advance,
- to carry out specific investigations on the influence of individual parameters,
- optimise both the tool itself and the production parameters as already in the design phase.
Visualizations provide the exact overview
Visualization in 2D
The 2D representation as standard visualization in PTM already shows the results with µm accuracy. Thanks to tools such as zoom and measurement functions including quantitative profile comparisons, the graphic provides all the details you need to evaluate of your tool and process design. Color-coded graphical background information such as the visualization of generation kinematics or collision situations give you a quick overview of essential process boundary conditions.
Visualization in EVA4D
The esco visualization tool EVA4D, which is seamlessly linked to PTM, generates instant 3D views of workpieces and tools, providing additional geometric information in the area of gear cutting, such as the marking of the active flank and essential diameter information. The fourth dimension is taken up by the process kinematics.
Let's look at the example of power-skiving: EVA4D makes it possible to use CAD interfaces to read in component geometries into which the gear teeth are to be inserted. Because EVA4D visualizes the hobbing kinematics for the gearing in the component, the collision analyses obtained can be directly incorporated into the tool design.
As a virtual image of reality, EVA4D effectively supports the imagination and understanding of geometry and motion sequences in the current application. You recognize problems at first glance - and can correct them.
Flexibility through modular design
PTM is a modularly structured construction kit system. In the sense of a work plan way of thinking, workpieces and tools are selected and linked to each other via the machining processes. The user's range of workpieces and machines define the scope of the respective PTM system. If the requirements grow with regard to the range of parts, the machine tools or new technologies, PTM can grow individually: in wide areas by supplementing standard modules, in addition by new solutions from system development and/or individually by customizing for special applications.