Design of aluminum extrusion dies. Part 1

In an activity as technical as tool design for material shaping, progress is best illustrated by calculations and computer simulations . However, the most significant advances are as much the fruit of advances in numerical calculation as of human expertise. The latter, however, is less often the focus of attention.

However, "high-performance" design offices are more successful thanks to their experts than to the software they use. However, this competitive advantage is fragile, as this expertise is difficult to formalize and capitalize on, and therefore difficult to pass on.

That's why, in this presentation of die design for aluminum extrusion, we will focus on describing the cognitive aspects of this activity. In addition, based on descriptions of the various states of the art, we will focus on the points of reflection that lead to innovation.

The importance of the human aspect lies in the fact that the design of dies (especially those for hollow sections) is particularly complex:

• in the image of the design activity itself ;

• and because the problem to be solved (to design a die) is also complex.

This second point clearly reveals the first. In particular, it underpins our interest in the human aspect, which appears not only essential but also unavoidable:

• Strictly speaking, there is no solution to the problem of designing a tubular die;

• but simply design proposals, more or less satisfying a customer (spinner) or, more precisely, a customer (setter) who is the spinner's interlocutor.

In other words, the success of a design is not intrinsic to the tool designed. It depends on the people who are willing and able to use it.

After a general presentation