QForm features

QForm has many features that allow the user to quickly identify and solve a variety of problems and to maximize the benefit to your company. The program is designed to run automatically so that your engineers' valuable time isn't spent tending to the simulation. The engineer spends a few minutes setting up the simulation and then is free to do other work while it runs automatically.

QForm comes with several additional programs that significantly increase the value and usability of the program:

• QForm Workbench is a program that does everything QForm does except the actual number crunching of simulation. It allows you to import geometry, set up and save simulations, as well as analyze the results of simulations. A licensed QForm user can run as many copies of QForm Workbench on as many computers as they like. It's like having a multi-seat license for the price of a single seat.
• QForm Viewer allows full viewing of simulation results and is a handy program for the sales force so they can show the results of the simulations to your customers.
• QBatch can run multiple simulations in batch mode. Simulation files are entered into QBatch and they will be run sequentially on QForm until they are all finished. If a simulation stops or crashes, QBatch will close it and start the next simulation in the queue. QBatch is useful for running multiple simulations overnight or during weekends.

Cases are a very useful feature of QForm that allow you to quickly find solutions to complex problems. Cases allow you to make exact copies of a simulation and then modify one parameter to see how it affects the results. Let's say you have run a simulation and you found a problem; for example, the die is underfilled at one end. There are several possible solutions to the problem. You could increase the billet size, change the initial billet position, modify the lubrication, modify the temperature, or modify the die geometry. With cases, you can try all of these options and then run the simulations in batch mode to compare the results and see which option is your best solution. Cases let you explore all of the options to quickly find the best solution.

Data from QForm simulations can be easily shown in the workpiece during the running of a simulation as well as after it is finished. The following data can be seen graphically on the surface or in any cross section of the workpiece:

• Contour
• Temperature
• Effective strain
• Effective strain rate
• Effective stress
• Mean stress
• Velocity in any axis
• Die contact
• Flow lines

Tool simulations can be run where, at the click of the mouse, the user can see the following properties of the tool:

• Distortion due to forming load
• Radial and axial displacement
• Load
• Effective stress and strain
• Mean stress
• Radial stress and strain
• Axial stress and strain
• Hoop stress and strain
• Shearing stress and strain
• Volumetric strain
• Die wear factor

Graphs can easily be generated that show load, work energy, power, velocity and distance and how they relate to distance, time, (and crank angle if on a mechanical press). When possible, graphs can be printed together to show how the data relates. For instance, load curves can be added together to show total load on a machine forming multiple stations at the same time.

Tracked points can be inserted as a grid or as individual points anywhere in the work piece. Tracked points can show the evolution of temperature, effective strain and strain rate, effective stress, mean stress and lode index at that specific point throughout the course of the forming process.

Other useful output are printed project reports, as well as customizable movie (.avi) and picture (.bmp) output.

Cross sections can be made anywhere in a 3D simulation. All visual parameters can be seen on the cross cut plane as well as on the surface of the part.

QForm has tools to easily allow dimensional measurement of the work piece or the tools at any point in the simulation. Measurements can be taken vertically, horizontally, or on a cross cut plane in a 3D simulation.

A drawing of the machined part can be superimposed over the graphic of the forging so that you can see the properties of the forging at the surface of the machined part.

Even though QForm is designed to be easy to use it has many advanced features that can satisfy the most sophisticated users.
The Boxes feature allows users to identify some specific regions within the simulation to modify conditions such as:

1. Boundary conditions (ie; to hold the workpiece)
2. Friction condition (ie; lubrication)
3. Pressure condition (ie; venting)
4. Mesh density can be modified
5. Remeshing of the elements can be blocked
6. Parts of the workpiece can be deleted

Partial simulations. The use of segments is useful to speed up the simulation of complex 3D parts that have some symmetry and can be simulated as half or quarter section or as a pie shaped segment as small as 15 degrees. This means that the simulation will be significantly faster, and very often more accurate because the program can assign more mesh over a smaller volume. QForm can utilize two kinds of symmetry:

• Reflective symmetry is where the whole part can be made by mirror image reflection of some section of the whole. Such as parts where one half is the same as the other half or for parts with radially symmetric 3D components. Reflective symmetry is relatively easy to handle since the program considers the cut plane as a linear plane.
• Rotational symmetry is when the whole part can be made by rotating the segment around some central axis. Rotational symmetry is more complex to perform than simple reflective symmetry since the plane must flex and bend based on forces applied from the other side of the segment. QForm handles this complex process very accurately. Rotational symmetry can be useful for symmetrical parts with some non-radial 3D components or for nested platters.

Examples of rotational symmetry that QForm can run as a small segment


Examples of nested platters that QForm can run as a half section with rotational symmetry