Abstract
The design of progressive dies is a highly iterative planning process in which the designer attempts to select a die configuration which will produce a part most efficiently by minimizing material, tooling and maintenance costs while achieving the required part specifications. The planning process involves a considerable amount of human cognitive skills such as pattern recognition and matching (as in punch shape recognition) and spatial planning (as in nesting and staging of die processes) based on the geometrical features of the part. This paper describes an intelligent planning aid which can assist the die designer in planning progressive dies. The highly automated and yet flexible planning aid is developed by linking together a CAD (computer aided design) system, a knowledge-based system and a library of numerical routines.