In modern manufacturing, a successful product must do more than meet functional, structural, and performance requirements. It must also be manufacturable, cost-effective, and capable of achieving consistent production quality.
However, manufacturing problems such as cracking or wrinkling during sheet metal forming, porosity in castings, and warpage or short shots in plastic injection molding may only become apparent after tooling has been manufactured or production trials have begun.
These late-stage issues can result in additional tooling costs, material waste, production delays, and extended time to market.
Simcenter Inspire Manufacturing is a suite of manufacturing simulation solutions from Siemens that helps engineers evaluate manufacturability early in the product development process. By simulating material behavior and manufacturing processes virtually, engineers can identify potential defects, refine part geometry, and optimize process parameters before committing to physical tooling and production trials.
The portfolio includes specialized applications for sheet metal forming, metal casting, plastic injection molding, and other manufacturing processes.
Key solutions include:
The goal is to connect Design, Simulation, and Manufacturing in a more integrated workflow, enabling manufacturers to improve product quality, reduce trial-and-error, and accelerate product development.
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2.1. What challenges does Inspire Form solve?
In automotive, appliance, and sheet metal manufacturing, components are often produced through one or multiple stamping operations. Forming quality depends on part geometry, material properties, blank shape, blank-holder force, and die design.
An unsuitable design or process can lead to several manufacturing defects:
Simcenter Inspire Form enables engineers to evaluate these risks virtually before investing in physical tooling and production trials.
Formability Analysis
Inspire Form helps predict potential forming defects, including splits, wrinkles, and excessive thinning. Engineers can evaluate results such as thickness reduction, plastic strain, stress, and Forming Limit Diagram (FLD) information to identify critical areas.
These insights help determine whether part geometry or forming conditions need to be modified before tooling is manufactured.
Blank Shape and Nesting Optimization
The software supports flat blank shape prediction and blank layout analysis to improve material utilization.
For high-volume stamping operations, optimizing the blank shape and nesting layout can directly affect material consumption, unit production cost, and overall manufacturing efficiency.
Die Face Design
Inspire Form provides tools for developing die face geometry and planning multi-stage stamping operations, including drawing, trimming, and flanging.
Features for binder surfaces, addendum surfaces, drawbeads, and geometric modifications help engineers develop and refine die concepts more efficiently.
Multistage Forming and Virtual Tryout
For transfer dies and progressive dies, Inspire Form supports simulation of multiple forming operations within supported workflows.
Engineers can evaluate how the part evolves through each operation, identify potential forming defects, and assess springback before conducting physical die tryouts.
Springback Compensation
Springback can cause stamped parts to deviate from their intended geometry, potentially creating assembly and tolerance problems.
Inspire Form supports springback evaluation and available geometry compensation workflows, helping engineers improve dimensional accuracy and refine die designs.
For sheet metal manufacturers and tool-and-die companies, Inspire Form helps move part of the manufacturability validation process from physical tryout into the design and simulation stage.
Potential benefits include fewer forming defects, better material utilization, reduced tooling iterations, shorter die development cycles, and improved collaboration between product designers, process engineers, and tooling specialists.
Typical applications: Automotive body panels, inner door panels, hoods, appliance housings, precision sheet metal components, and stamped metal parts.
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Casting quality depends on several interacting factors, including gating system design, molten metal flow, mold temperature, solidification behavior, and gas evacuation.
Inadequate process conditions can cause defects that are only discovered during casting trials or subsequent part inspection, increasing scrap rates and tooling modification costs.
Simcenter Inspire Cast helps engineers simulate the casting process to evaluate mold filling, solidification, and thermomechanical behavior.
According to the supplied presentations, supported process examples include high-pressure die casting (HPDC), low-pressure die casting (LPDC), gravity casting, tilt-pour casting, and investment casting.
Filling Simulation
Inspire Cast simulates molten metal flow during mold filling and helps engineers evaluate parameters such as temperature, velocity, and pressure in supported workflows.
The results can help identify potential air entrapment, incomplete filling, and cold-shut risks. Engineers can then investigate changes to gate locations, runner geometry, and process conditions.
Solidification Analysis
After filling, molten metal cools and solidifies. This process affects temperature distribution, shrinkage, and final casting quality.
Inspire Cast helps evaluate temperature evolution, solidification time, solid fraction, and areas of concentrated heat.
These insights support decisions involving part geometry, feeding systems, and cooling conditions.
Porosity and Shrinkage Prediction
Important casting defects include shrinkage porosity, microporosity, and pipe shrinkage.
Inspire Cast provides tools to predict these defects within supported processes, helping engineers identify areas at risk before conducting physical casting trials.
Based on the simulation results, the team can review part geometry, gating and feeding arrangements, and factors that influence solidification.
Thermomechanical Simulation
During cooling and mold removal, castings can develop residual stresses and deformation due to temperature changes and interactions with the mold.
Inspire Cast supports analysis of stress and displacement during relevant stages, helping engineers evaluate the risk of post-casting distortion and improve the design before further verification.
Geometry and Tooling Analysis
The software also provides tools for checking draft angles, fillet radii, and areas with significant thickness variations. These checks help identify potential manufacturability issues earlier in the design process.
For foundries and metal casting manufacturers, Inspire Cast helps shift defect identification from a process that relies heavily on physical trials toward simulation-based engineering evaluation.
Manufacturers can potentially reduce late-stage tooling modifications, avoid unnecessary trial iterations, and improve casting quality earlier in product development.
Typical applications: Automotive and electric vehicle castings, transmission housings, industrial machinery components, die-cast parts, and complex metal components requiring dimensional consistency.
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Injection molding is widely used to manufacture components for automotive, electronics, home appliances, and industrial products.
Part quality depends on component geometry, resin properties, gate locations, injection pressure, holding pressure, cooling time, and mold cooling system design.
If these factors are not properly optimized, common defects can occur:
Simcenter Inspire Mold helps engineers evaluate these risks and adjust part geometry, mold design, and processing parameters before production trials.
Filling and Flow Analysis
The software simulates molten plastic flow into the mold cavity, helping engineers evaluate flow patterns, weld line locations, and potential short-shot risks.
The results can support decisions involving gate placement, runner design, part geometry, and parameters affecting mold filling.
Packing Analysis
The packing stage helps compensate for material shrinkage after the cavity has been filled.
Inspire Mold supports evaluation of relevant pressure and holding-time conditions, helping engineers investigate how these parameters influence part quality and dimensional consistency.
Cooling System Optimization
Cooling is a major factor affecting both cycle time and dimensional stability.
Inspire Mold supports analysis of cooling channels, coolant temperature, and thermal behavior within supported workflows. This helps engineers investigate cooling uniformity and opportunities to reduce warpage.
Warpage and Dimensional Accuracy
Uneven shrinkage can cause molded parts to bend, twist, or deviate from specified tolerances after ejection.
Inspire Mold helps predict deformation trends so engineers can evaluate changes to part geometry, cooling systems, and processing conditions.
Fiber-Reinforced Materials
For fiber-reinforced plastics, fiber orientation during molding can influence both deformation and mechanical behavior.
The supplied technical presentation identifies capabilities for analyzing reinforced materials and evaluating fiber orientation in supported workflows.
Runner and Gate Design
Inspire Mold supports parametric runner design and a range of gate configurations. The presentation also highlights capabilities involving hot runners, cold runners, and valve gates, subject to the applicable software functionality.
These tools allow engineers to evaluate the mold feeding system during the design stage.
For injection molding companies and mold makers, Inspire Mold helps identify manufacturing risks that can affect appearance, dimensional accuracy, and product quality.
Rather than relying exclusively on adjustments after mold trials, engineers can evaluate alternative gate locations, runner layouts, cooling designs, and process parameters through simulation.
Potential benefits include fewer mold trial iterations, improved dimensional consistency, shorter cycle times, and reduced late-stage tooling modifications.
Typical applications: Electronic enclosures, automotive plastic components, engineering plastic parts, appliance components, and fiber-reinforced molded products.
| Criteria | Inspire Form | Inspire Cast | Inspire Mold |
| Manufacturing process | Sheet metal forming | Metal casting | Plastic injection molding |
| Key risks evaluated | Cracking, wrinkling, thinning, springback | Filling problems, air entrapment, shrinkage, porosity, distortion | Short shots, weld lines, sink marks, voids, warpage |
| Main optimization targets | Blank, part geometry, forming sequence, and stamping dies | Casting geometry, gating and feeding systems, solidification conditions | Plastic part design, gates, runners, cooling systems, and molding parameters |
| Primary business value | Improve formability and material utilization | Reduce casting defect risks | Improve part quality and dimensional consistency |
Each application is designed for a specific manufacturing process. The appropriate solution depends on the production method, material, product requirements, and simulation objectives.
Manufacturers can implement a simulation workflow using the following steps:
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For companies using Siemens NX, the presentations also introduce the NX-Inspire Connector for selected integrated workflows. It supports transferring and updating models from NX to Inspire Cast, enabling manufacturing simulation as part of the product design process.
The value of Simcenter Inspire Manufacturing is not limited to predicting defects. It also changes when manufacturers can identify and address engineering problems.
When an issue is discovered during the design stage, engineers generally have more opportunities to adjust the part, tooling concept, or manufacturing process before physical tooling and production trials begin.
Key business benefits include:
Actual benefits depend on input data quality, material models, process parameters, and validation practices. Simulation should be combined with manufacturing expertise and appropriate physical testing to verify the final solution.
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Digital Industries Software Co., Ltd. (DI Software) provides consulting and industrial software solutions from Siemens Digital Industries Software in Vietnam, helping manufacturers improve product design, simulation, and manufacturing processes.
We help businesses identify simulation solutions that match their manufacturing requirements, including sheet metal forming, metal casting, and plastic injection molding.
Contact DI Software to discuss how Simcenter Inspire Form, Inspire Cast, and Inspire Mold can help your engineering team identify manufacturing risks earlier, optimize tooling, and shorten product development cycles.
Contact DI Software
Simcenter Inspire Manufacturing – Identify manufacturing issues earlier, optimize production processes, and connect design with manufacturing through engineering simulation.
