A great deal of expertise is required in sheet metal processing to ensure that bending does not become breaking. However, this is usually in the heads of long-standing sheet metal specialists who are gradually retiring. With the departure of the know-how carriers, the many years of experience dwindle.

The Stuttgart-based start-up Optimate has therefore set itself the task of digitizing the sheet metal knowledge that has been built up over decades. A real challenge when you consider how extensive and diverse the applications in sheet metal processing are. "We recognized this problem and wanted to provide decades of knowledge and access to sheet metal expertise as a digital consulting service," says CEO and co-founder Jonas Steiling, recalling the start of Optimate two years ago. This initial vision has now become reality with a digital solution for the analysis and optimization of sheet metal components. Anyone using the solution no longer has to run the risk of bringing a component to production that may not be possible or only costly to manufacture. Not only do we give design and work preparation more process reliability, but time-consuming queries to the customer and expensive, manual redesigns are now a thing of the past," says Jonas Steiling, who has seen numerous practical examples.

Analyze components via app in the cloud

Optimate's cloud solution consists of two products: feasibility analysis and component optimization. In the first step, the user uploads their sheet metal component in STEP or SolidWorks format to the cloud-based web app. Several 3D CAD files can be uploaded and analyzed at the same time. Mild steel, stainless steel and aluminum can be selected as material options. Within a few seconds, the potential available for each component is listed. A highly optimizable component can mean cost savings of more than 30 %, while a well-optimizable part can save up to 20 %. The user can now see optimization opportunities where he previously had no transparency about his components and where it is worth taking a closer look," explains the Optimate CEO.

The Optimate service recognizes the potential for optimisation within seconds and indicates any design errors. Parallel to the potential detection, a feasibility check runs in the background to ensure that each component can be manufactured reliably. If this is not the case, the corresponding areas on the component are highlighted in color as warnings. While deformations often affect the appearance of the component, a large proportion of the warnings issued prevent the worker in production from being able to manufacture this component at all. For example, if the minimum leg length is not reached and the marked fault leg is too short depending on the bending angle, sheet thickness, material and tool pairing, then the leg cannot be bent. The designer can thus be informed as early as possible about the warning or other fault contours, which are marked in red in the 3D graphic.

Component optimization at a click

But what use are warnings if they still have to be corrected manually? The highlight of the Optimate solution: at the touch of a button, a design suggestion for the reliable production of the component is generated immediately. With one click, an extended leg is displayed in an optimization graphic to the minimum leg dimension," explains Jonas Steiling. The advantage of this is that the designer and the work preparation staff can always display the actual state parallel to the optimized target state. The user can now download the adapted component directly as a STEP or SolidWorks file and transfer it to their CAD program. For the whole thing to work, the existing bending tools must initially be entered in the individual customer profile. This prevents optimization suggestions being made for which the required toolset is not available.

AI with over 90 percent accuracy

The start-up team has developed its own artificial intelligence to identify the optimization potential. The AI algorithm contains around 60 different features that can describe pretty much any sheet metal component. "We can now predict with 92% accuracy whether there is potential for optimization, even for components that the AI has never seen before," explains Jonas Steiling. And the more users upload their components to the cloud solution, the "smarter" the AI ultimately becomes. "We want to keep retraining the AI so that its accuracy keeps growing."

And Optimate has also thought about the last 8% of the route: if a user reaches the limits of what is possible, they can click on "Consulting Services" in the cloud platform and bring Optimate's consultants on board.

AI always recognizes optimization potential

The feasibility check often does not detect any warnings, which means that the analyzed component can, in principle, be manufactured in this way. AI, on the other hand, recognizes a high potential for optimization. So why not optimize if this often means that entire production steps can be eliminated and enormous cost savings are possible? The question now is: how can this sheet metal component be redesigned with system support? The start-up has also come up with and developed a clever solution for this: automatic optimization. Suitable CAD components can simply be uploaded. In the background, a 2D cut is created from the 3D body, i.e. a development is made. This unfolding is then converted into a graphical description in which each surface has a connection type to its neighboring surfaces. The Optimate solution uses these graphs to generate alternative construction methods for the component and displays the five most relevant ones. A stability check and a cost calculation run automatically for each of these solution variants.

Example sheet metal bracket (see Fig. 6): In addition to the original part uploaded by the customer, there are design variants to eliminate the expensive weld seam envisaged by the designer by forming (bending) it. The original weld seam becomes a bend, the base surface is provided with a separating cut. The component now receives its stability from the screw-on situation and no longer from the weld seam. The welding process can be completely eliminated, thus saving an entire work step, which demonstrably results in cost savings of over 40 % for the stop bracket.

If such a component is then manufactured in larger series of tens or hundreds of thousands, the cost savings are enormous," says Jonas Steiling. The optimization platform then also displays the processing: In a 2D blank, the weld seams are shown in orange, the bends are shown in green as an alternative, as are the inner and outer contours, as the waste can play a decisive role in material optimization (nesting).

The user in the design or work preparation department selects the most suitable variant from all five suggested variants with a single click. The selected optimized variant appears on the screen with details of the cost savings, showing exactly where these are achieved. The final decision should still lie with the designer. We provide him with the basis for his decision, including the redesign and CAD data set," emphasizes Jonas Steiling, "with our tools, he has access to extensive expert knowledge on all aspects of sheet metal processing and we thus expand his decision-making horizon in the long term. If the client finally agrees to the component optimization and redesign, the optimized components can go into production with process reliability.

Connecting web stores and marketplaces

Suppliers are also familiar with this problem. It is not uncommon for a customer to order a component for which a price has already been calculated, even though it cannot be manufactured. Webshop operators in particular have a great interest in integrating an automated feasibility check in order to ultimately rule out the possibility of faulty components reaching production in the first place.

In the meantime, Optimate has already been able to directly connect various webshops in the supplier environment to the cloud solution via the API interface. The start-up also has its sights set on all marketplaces for sheet metal components. Their operators also have the problem of providing their users with process reliability for the components on offer. "The first marketplaces, not only in Europe but also in Asia, are already using our optimization tool in the background of their orders," says Jonas Steiling, looking optimistically into the future of his still young start-up. "We have found that our integrated feasibility check creates huge added value for webshop operators."

Although the initial focus will be on marketplaces for sheet metal components and sheet metal processing, marketplaces for machining will follow in a second step. For example, if a marketplace operator for 3D printing decides to take up and offer sheet metal technology. Our tools will make it easier for them to get started and build up sheet metal expertise. In addition, with every additional user, every additional web store and marketplace, more and more data is available to the AI, which makes our knowledge database for sheet metal processing increasingly 'smarter'," concludes the Optimate Managing Director.