Beyond that, there are features to manage the company s stock of rolls, e.g. to check out defective rolls and release rolls for re-working, etc.

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1 COPRA RF 2013 Compatible with AutoCAD 2014 Database-MODULE: COPRA RLM Roll Lifecycle Management As well as in other industries, roll forming companies have to find effective ways to reduce their expenses in order to ensure competitive pricing on their products. Therefore data M offers a comprehensive toolkit for its roll form design software COPRA, enabling roll forming companies to save tooling cost by flexible re-use of existing roll tools. The COPRA RLM database enables roll forming designers to store complete toolsets to a database in order to easily find and re-use rolls for other projects. The database is based on the industry standard Microsoft SQL Server 2008 which allows for fast searching even in huge environments with a large number of rolls. The functionality of the RLM database has been fully integrated into the COPRA workflow and could therefore be used with a minimum of additional effort. The COPRA RLM database provides tools to search for existing rolls based on easily defined search criteria, and to use the found rolls in future designs. Further functions were implemented to create a bill of material of rolls to order (or rolls to produce), based on the current stock of rolls. This ensures that only the rolls needed additional to the rolls already on stock will be ordered or produced. Beyond that, there are features to manage the company s stock of rolls, e.g. to check out defective rolls and release rolls for re-working, etc. By integrating measuring data from the COPRA RollScanner, it is also possible to monitor the wear of rolls over a particular period of time, or to assess the general deploy-ability of particular roll tools. Page 1

2 One more application in this context is the Recycling module inside the COPRA RLM database: Rolls can be marked as Obsolete and are therefore available for re-working for future projects and no longer for profile production. Instead of manufacturing rolls from new blanks as usual, those obsolete rolls can then be used to produce new rolls from them. The system will search for suitable recycling rolls for entire new projects at the touch of a button, based upon geometry. Compared to the classic production of rolls from blanks, apart from the material cost, it is possible to save some process steps such as sawing, drilling or driving of the bore groove. 1) General Information Database engine: Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Functions completely integrated into the COPRA RF workflow 2) Managing the stock of rolls Automatic creation of ordering Bills of Material considering the current inventory of stock rolls Grouping commonly used rolls in "Combi Rollsets" Stocktaking functions: check out defective rolls, release rolls for re-working etc. Page 2

3 3) Use existing rolls for new Designs Easy-to-use search functions for common roll geometries Searching rolls by means of relevant contour entities Highly customizable roll lists Comfortable functions to insert existing rolls into new designs including preview Cross Reference List for rolls Page 3

4 4) Project Optimization Rolls with the same geometry are detected automatically and can be assigned to a common mother roll (roll family). The advantages are the followings: Modification of rolls: each roll of a roll family is modified automatically if one roll out if it has changed Bill of material: You only get one entry with the corresponding quantity for a roll family Manufacturing documents: You only get one manufacturing document for the whole roll family Stock-keeping: All rolls belonging to the same mother roll can easily be grouped in storage and can be found or exchanged much for efficiently. Page 4

5 5) Extended roll attributes Differentiated definition of roll attributes Constantly visible panel 6) Bill of Material Highly customizable Bills of Material Rolls order List considering the current stock Project Bill of Material considering assembly positions 7) Recycling roll search Searching Obsolete rolls for re-work in new designs Transferring measuring data from the COPRA RollScanner to the database Customizable search (considering bore, max. difference in roll width, min. extra material for re-working etc.) Page 5

6 MODULE: COPRA RF Tubes Functionality: Wall Thickness Variations The new version COPRA RF 2013 provides the possibility to create and maintain any number of variants for Tube Mill projects. The individual variants are essentially independent projects within COPRA RF, i.e. in each variant all functions of COPRA like automatic dimensioning, assembly plan, Inventor interface, DTM and FEA are available. Variants are required for an effective and comfortable adjustment of a basic roll tooling for different wall thicknesses. Inside a COPRA RF project a basic roll tooling for the nominal wall thickness is created. For any other wall thickness that is to be made with this basic roll tooling, a variant project will subsequently be created. All important parameter will be transferred automatically. For any of these variants the user now has the possibility to adapt the basic roll tooling automatically or manually. Various options are available to do so. The result is a basic roll tooling that is adapted to the respective wall thickness. Of course the target is to modify as few rolls as possible of the basic roll tooling. Page 6

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8 COPRA makes use of parametric in Inventor From a COPRA project, the complete design can be created at the push of a button. All rolls will be built as parametric parts and are positioned at the correct place in the final assembly. With COPRA RF 2013 the 2D manufacturing drawings are automatically generated. The time consuming process of creating them manually is not necessary anymore. The drawing templates for the rolls can be adjusted to the company standards and necessary dimensions can be set. Each roll type must only be dimensioned once. Up to now, in each project every single roll of a type had to be dimensioned individually. In all projects, using this roll type, the time and effort becomes reduced to control the automatically created manufacturing drawings. The assembly, each single roll and each drawing is completely parametric. Necessary changes in the COPRA design (change roll data, distance between stations etc.) will be updated automatically without the need to recreate the manufacturing drawings. The adaptations in the drawing already made are not lost, they are also conserved. For an efficient design the following tools available. Automatically created assembly Parametric rolls as 3D parts Automatically created 2D manufacturing drawing of each roll Automatically dimensioned 2D manufacturing drawing Configurable templates for 2D manufacturing drawings (company standard) COPRA bore attributes as parametric features Display of profile, bearings and retaining rings On / Off switch for profile, bearings and retaining rings Change the alignment of the design in the CAD system Page 8

9 Turn stations (switch left / right defining the machine side) Change direction of profiling Visibility of profile, bearings and retaining rings (top, bottom, left, right) customizable Special selection of profile, bearings and retaining rings (top, bottom, left, right) available Collision detection with multiple possibilities (per station, multiple stations, only rolls, rolls with bearing, station - station, ) Intelligent COPRA Inventor Interface Predefined roll types Parametric 3D roll drawings Borehole details as parametric feature Automatically created 2D drawing of a roll Automatically dimensioned 2D manufacturing drawing Configurable templates for 2D manufacturing drawings (company standard) Page 9

10 Display of profile, bearings and retaining rings On / Off switch for profile, bearings and retaining rings Change the alignment of the design in the CAD system Turn stations (switch left / right defining the machine side) Change direction of profiling Page 10

11 Easy control of visibility of profile, bearings and retaining rings (top, bottom, left, right) customizable) Easy selection of profile, bearings and retaining rings (top, bottom, left, right) available Collision detection with multiple possibilities (per station, multiple stations, only rolls, rolls with bearing, station - station, ) Page 11

12 COPRA RF AutoUpdate With COPRA RF 2013 a new function is available to automatically check during loading of the application for new versions or service packs. The availability is shown directly in the respective menu. The user defines when COPRA RF should be looking for new versions or updates. Releases If a new release is available the user can select to automatically be connected with the data M homepage. On this page you can check which improvements and bug fixes are available for the new version. Updates / Service Packs / Patches If a service pack or patch is available then the COPRA RF AutoUpdate can be loaded automatically. In the next step it will display which new version is available and which version is currently installed. In addition a list with all adaptations, improvements and bug fixes compared to your version will be displayed. Should you would like to make use of this update, the process is started automatically. The COPRA RF AutoUpdate will download all necessary files and automatically update the COPRA RF version installed. This available AutoUpdate process now allows the possibility to apply service packs or patches more often. Page 12

13 COPRA FEA RF 2013 The focus of the development work for our FEA solution was this time lying on the development of a new user environment. Furthermore, many preliminaries has been developed to allow the introduction of the automatic remesh in the subsequent version. New user Environment in COPRA FEA RF 2013 The user environment available until version 2011 is on one hand very efficient for the use of the program, but it of course has some optical deficits as it is no longer complies with upto-date standards. With version 2013 to the software goes with a new, Windows-oriented user interface. Windows Look and Feel : Use of icons, dock able windows, Pull-Down menus, File-Browser, Copy & Paste of objects Multi window display allows to show result model and result diagrams parallel Menu history allows well structured and effective investigation of results Toolbars with preferred functionalities like station browser or show and view menu Interactive help menu Page 13

14 Improved Navigation through the virtual roll forming machine New functionality in the Station Browser and the increment Scan allows a comfortable navigation through the virtual roll forming machine. Additional Information of the station names (directly form the COPRA design), allows an easy orientation. Furthermore, the integration of the selection of visible stations into the station browser allows a better control of the view of the machine already during the navigation and eliminates this typical second step. Both Solver and Interface as native 64bit available The new Interface is available for 32bit and 64bit New Python version An update of the new Python version enables a wide usage of up-to-date packages which are integrated in the software for precise and fast investigation of the results. Page 14

15 M6 COPRA FEA RF Import: interface to FEA for 3 rd party systems Today, it is essential for roll forming companies to be able to crosscheck a roll design prior to the tooling being manufactured and the set-up being completed on the machine. Simulating a roll design in a professional manner requires an integrated process chain. A simple transfer of the roll design data, together with a fast automated model preparation, that is connected with minimal user inputs, short calculation time and a comfortable postprocessing operation are essential prerequisites for a good solution. Today these conditions are already fulfilled by the COPRA RF and COPRA FEA RF product family. Although if flower and roll designs are completed with a different package, it is quite often difficult to achieve the same synergy. data M has thus collected a lot of knowhow for the conversion of existing A N Other designs into COPRA RF. With this know-how a new Module has been developed: COPRA FEA RF Import Besides the COPRA Software approach, a professional integrated process chain from design to simulation is hard to find. To also allow users of 3 rd party systems the COPRA FEA RF Import interface was consequently designed. Fast facts are as followed: Automatic flower and roll transfer from commercial 3 rd party systems to COPRA RF Automated, pass by pass transfer of a roll design from CAD drawings to COPRA RF, thus enabling the import and simulation of older designs that only exist as CAD drawings. Definition of punch hole pattern for the automatic mesh generation Quick modification of an existing tooling with the integrated COPRA RF Roll Design Module With this solution it is possible to make use of COPRA FEA RF without changing the inhouse roll design software! No need to learn 2 news systems in one go, but make use of the benefits of FEA! Page 15