Manufacturers are pushing the boundaries of automotive design to create lightweight, fuel-efficient vehicles by integrating advanced materials like high-strength steels, and aluminum. Achieving these goals while ensuring structural integrity and optimal performance relies on precise and efficient stamping processes. Additionally, the shift to electric vehicles (EVs) introduces unique design challenges, requiring faster, more adaptable production methods to meet evolving demands, placing even greater emphasis on highly predictive simulation tools.

These evolving demands compound existing challenges for engineers involved in automotive stamping process engineering. Validating component models becomes critical to avoid manufacturing defects, cost overruns, and project delays. To keep pace, engineers require tools that streamline workflows without the steep learning curve of complex software. While current simulation tools address sheet metal forming, persistent issues such as excessive springback and cosmetic defects highlight the need for further innovation in this field.

Innovative digital validation solutions, such as Body Manufacturing-Stamp (BM-Stamp) from ESI Group, a part of Keysight Technologies, empower manufacturers to overcome these obstacles by enabling rapid iteration and optimization of stamping processes. By reducing reliance on physical prototypes early in the product lifecycle, these tools streamline workflows, enhance cost-efficiency, and improve the overall reliability of manufacturing operations.

Automotive Stamping Simulation That’s Enterprise-Wide

A powerful toolset for key engineering decision-makers

Imagine a solution tailored for key automotive stamping processes that combines accurate physics modeling with faster processing speeds. This system helps engineers detect stamping defects earlier, reducing costly rework and simplifying workflows. BM-Stamp makes this possible with a CAD-oriented setup that minimizes reliance on the engineer's experience level regarding finite element and meshing knowledge.

It supports engineers through every stage, from advanced feasibility analysis and process planning to tool and die production and parts manufacturing. This comprehensive approach enables more precise and reliable predictions about part and process quality, improving outcomes across the board.

BM-Stamp offers a powerful toolset for key engineering decision-makers. Its advanced physics modeling and quick processing drastically improve the accuracy of the simulations and, as a consequence, reduce the risk during physical try-outs and, thus, the time spent on physical try-outs (and the associated high costs). By enhancing predictiveness and simplifying workflows, the impact of BM-Stamp can be felt along the various points of the production ecosystem, whether an end user or not, in achieving higher efficiency, fewer physical iteration loops, and cost savings.

Validating automotive stamping processes with advanced 3D simulation. Image credit: BM-Stamp.

BM-Stamp can be easily integrated into existing IT infrastructure, making it an attractive choice for ICT and procurement departments. Its straightforward pricing and compatibility with existing systems ensure a smooth adoption process. The software not only enhances engineering workflows but also reduces operational costs and shortens time to market. By enabling manufacturers to make more data-driven decisions, BM-Stamp helps foster innovation and achieve long-term sustainability goals. In short, it is not just a simulation tool but a strategic solution.

Reducing the complexity for process planning engineers

Engineers responsible for planning the stamping process face unique challenges, balancing the need for speed, flexibility, and precision. They must conduct numerous simulations daily while remaining agile enough to adjust processes to accommodate changes in part geometry. Waiting for in-house engineers to achieve perfect accuracy isn’t very practical for automotive companies that outsource production. Software that prioritizes speed and reliability over unnecessary complexity in these fast-paced environments becomes essential.

BM-Stamp empowers process planners not only to detect and address formability issues and geometrical distortions with higher predictive confidence, but identify the existence and severity of cosmetic defects early in the process development cycle, a critical capability for ensuring flawless manufacturing of visible outer panels (Class-A) like doors, hoods, and fenders. Identifying these issues upfront prevents costly downstream modifications and delays. The product also allows optimization of material usage and cost by minimizing blank size, reducing waste without compromising quality. An additional attractive capability of BM-Stamp is the possibility to accurately predict the minimal required pressing force. This enables the selection of the right press line with sufficient power to form the parts correctly, but at lowest energy levels and thus contributing to the company’s overall sustainability KPI’s.

Cosmetic quality assessment through simulation of a stamped door outer panel. Image credit: BM-Stamp.

BM-Stamp combines formability, springback, and accurate press force prediction with unmatched speed, precision, and user-friendliness, making it a transformative solution for modern stamping challenges.

Increasing Accuracy for Process Validation

Process validation engineers' work involves modeling die surface geometry with CAD software and checking these die faces with stamping simulation software. Like process planning engineers, they focus on geometrical distortions, particularly springback in components. Their job is to predict the exact magnitude of springback with high accuracy. Any errors in these predictions will result in remilling of the tools, or in worst cases completely new manufacturing of the tools.

BM-Stamp integrates 3D die geometry and press specifications into stamping simulations. Image credit: BM-Stamp.

During this stage of the engineering process BM-Stamp allows detailed insights in the overall formability of the part as well as the cosmetic quality, resulting in an increased percentage of parts with required part quality and within tolerances directly at the first physical try-out, which in many automotive OEM’s is a key KPI. In addition to ensuring parts can be successfully manufactured, engineers can get highly reliable predictions of the final blank draw-in for the lowest material utilization (and thus cost!) per part. These reliable predictions are the result of not only the detailed physics representation integrated in the stamping solver, but also stemming from the accurate die surface geometry representation including the physical drawbead geometries.  Thanks to the very efficient process workflow integrated in the graphical environment and the excellent scalability of the solver on multiple cores, BM-Stamp significantly reduces the time required for performing digital tryouts, allowing engineers to iterate quickly. 

While process planners and validation engineers utilize BM-Stamp to develop and optimize stamping simulations, its benefits extend beyond these roles. For instance, tool and die shops, stamping manufacturing engineering directors, and procurement/ICT may not use BM-Stamp directly but benefit from its insights through reduced costly tryouts, better resource planning, and improved overall cost efficiency.

Saving costs and time for tool and die shops

Tool and die shops oversee manufacturing and testing the physical tools that deliver correct part quality during physical try-outs and later in production. Naturally, they rely on the results of simulations done by the other departments to mill the required tools. Yet, unfortunately, toolmakers often discover that a developed process or die shape results in cracks or excessive springback or thinning, and might even show cosmetic issues, which are often difficult to correct. To get the tools to produce the required quality in time is critical but challenging because tool and die work is often very close to the start of production (SOP).    

In case of issues, BM-Stamp can assist in finding the most effective countermeasures, saving both labor and material costs. Through accurate prediction of the final part quality, the number of physical iterations during try-out can be reduced, easily saving up to $30,000 per iteration, by drastically reducing the need for re-milling operations. When required, tool and die shops can rely on precise simulation data to implement process and design changes quickly and effortlessly. 

Peace of mind for stamping manufacturing engineering directors

The stamping manufacturing engineering director oversees the entire stamping engineering process, from advanced simulations to the final physical try-outs. This person is responsible for ensuring the engineered stamping tools produce high-quality parts on time and at an economical cost while maintaining efficiency during the development process. In addition, the director also has responsibilities to minimize the cost contribution of sheet metal-formed parts to the overall Body-In-White cost, which is depending on many different factors, including material cost (blank size) to produce parts, time spent on engineering the stamping process, tooling cost, physical try-out time and number of iterations to solve problems and many more.

Stamping simulation image with a color-coded deviation map. Image credit: BM-Stamp.

Using BM-Stamp early in the stamping process to iron out defects has a significant knock-on effect on the entire workflow. By reducing the number and complexity of physical iterations, BM-Stamp helps speed up time to production while keeping costs in check.

Cost-effective and scalable solution for procurement and ICT teams

Procurement and ICT have different concerns than those in Engineering, but they all aim to boost efficiency and productivity while keeping the cost to do so to a minimum. BM-Stamp offers feature-rich and user-friendly stamping software at a very market-attractive price. It also integrates easily, providing a scalable solution for both standard computers with 8 to 16 cores, as well as cluster machines with up to 128 cores, to ensure very fast turnaround times for validation of even the largest and most complex automotive body panels.

Thanks to the flexible token-based licensing scheme, which is used for both solver and graphical interfaces to setup simulations, companies can very easily and efficiently re-assign resources, for example by increasing or decreasing temporarily the solver capacity,

As these tokens are also shared with the other manufacturing products from ESI, like casting, welding, assembly, and composites, it also offers a very cost-attractive alternative for the multiple products from various software providers which are often currently installed at the automotive OEM’s. If for example, the demand of casting simulations or assembly simulations is low for a certain amount of time, the resources can then be added to increase the stamping installations, offering new and unprecedented efficiency and productivity increases at minimal cost.

Automotive Stamping Simulation from ESI Group

For over 25 years, ESI Group has been helping engineers address sheet metal forming challenges. The company’s PAM-STAMP is a more than 25 years industrially-proven product that delivers accurate, high-quality results while computing large models in a short time frame. With the introduction of BM-Stamp, which is dedicated to key automotive stamping processes and built on PAM-STAMP’s solver technology, ESI Group is increasing the benefits it provides while soothing pain points across engineering departments and beyond.

BM-Stamp not only enhances the accuracy and speed that engineers have come to rely on but also addresses broader challenges across engineering departments and beyond. The tool's scalability and user-friendly interface make it accessible at every level. By offering a scalable solution, it can be integrated without friction into existing ecosystems.    

To learn more, head over to the BM-STAMP product page and contact ESI Group for your next project.