A practical computer-aided approach to mould design for axisymmetric forging die cavities

Abstract This paper reviews existing guidelines for the design of mould impressions and discusses previous computer-aided approaches. A critical assessment shows these proposals to be inadequate for design by numerical methods and two new mould design rules are suggested. These are implemented in a computer program based on a Tektronix 4052 microcomputer and designs obtained from the computer are compared with those obtained by previous methods and also shapes collected from industry. Built inside the program are interactive routines which enable the user to modify the designs produced by the program alone, if they are not suitable for a particular purpose.