Description

An all-round engineering student should be able to design and work with different modern technologies and the latest computer software for planning, organising and managing, or simply by thinking of new and better ideas. However, quite a lot of local students, even after graduation, are unlikely to design and make more realistic tooling, especially those for sheet metal forming . In fact, this greatly reflects the quality and level of local engineers in this discipline, particularly of the tooling/product/tooling/project engineers. Insufficient training or shortage of time for learning the essentials of tooling design might seem to be the most common problem. In order to take immediate remedial action on this matter, making use of certain computer-aided software should be an appropriate direction and the most effective alternative. However, the technical information, library and database of the most of these software packages are insufficient and outdated. This definitely leads to an unreliable result of unrealistic and impractical tool designs, thus causing the loss of interest in student learning and further practising. Such issues should be resolved with this project, mainly by developing new interest-based self-learning materials and re-configuring the ease-of-use of contemporary computer-aided sheet metal forming die design software.

This project mainly aimed to further develop students' ability in designing sheet-metal forming dies through the use of computer-aided software and learning material enhancements, which were practically adapted and scaled to a more realistic production environment as measures of success in terms of utilization ofmaterials, ease of manufacture, technical feasibility, overall durability and cost effectiveness. Three-dimensional (3D) computer-aided design (CAD) models for various die designs as well as the related technical drawings with proper dimensioning and tolerances were creat ed by the enhanced software with the provision of supplementary standard component library and material database , which are used commonly in the global metal working/forming industry. All of these activities were positive experiences and able to improve the students' confidence to pursue their future careers. This also attracted both the public and private sectors, especially for the university trustees, parents, industrial partners and employers to recognise the abilities of local students as preferred and even all-round graduates.

Evaluation

The enhanced computer-aided environment was incorporated into the mini-projects to deliver the learning experiences of various sheet metal forming die design techniques for students. The students were divided into small groups and instructed to tackle several practical tasks with CAD applications. The tasks were carried out using a problem-based approach, as this was able to enhance the attainment of the learning objectives. The students worked in small groups to promote team spirit in their mini-projects. Formal group meetings were arranged to improve their project progress and simulated learning. At the end of "Sheet Metal Die Design" section in the subject, the students needed to present their sheet metal forming die designs and submit their written reports. These assessment tasks were used to evaluate their learning outcomes and to assess their learning abilities.

In order to evaluate the quality of the project outcomes and deliverables as well as their impact on the student learning, specially designed questionnaires were distributed to every participating student. These students should have come across such proactive learning and practice with the newly enhanced CAD software to create the sheet metal die designs. Also, another group of students, who had adopted the original learning approach, completed the same questionnaire and their results were used as the control group for comparison.

Two classes, having a total of 141 students took the subject "Tool Design" (ISE306) in Semester 2 of 14/15. These two classes were introduced to the "Computer-aided Sheet Metal Die Design" section of this subject through different approaches. The selected class (Class A), with a total of 76 students, adopted the proactive learning approach with the enhanced CAD software developed in this project (i.e. the new approach), while the other class (Class B), with a total of 65 students adopted the CAD software without enhancement (i.e. . the usual approach).

After the completion of lectures and tutorials, the evaluation of the students' learning experience was conducted by means of the aforementioned questionnaires in the second week of March 2015. There were 58 and 42 students in Classes A and B respectively participating in the evaluation. When the Class A students were asked to rate their degree oflearning satisfaction on the CAD software during the tutorials, 44 out of 58 (76% of the respondents) rated as satisfactory the items related to the user-friendly, realistic and practical aspects. On the other hand, 32 out of 42 students (76% of the respondents) in Class B found it unsatisfactory. This illustrated the effectiveness and significant impact of the new proactive learning process and ensured the attainment of the development work as well as project outcomes. However, this evaluation was first carried out on this subject, and there is a need to have more implementation of new approach for more rigorous statistical evidence to be collected.

Implications and Recommendations

After the completion ofthe project, the following major outcomes and key deliverables were achieved:

• More realistic tool components such as pilots, punches with various retaining methods (e.g. screw retained type and bezel type), die springs, sliding bushes and guide post sets as well as the properties (e.g. density, yield strength and shear strength) of typical strip materials such as stainless steel, mild steel, silicon steel, brass, copper and aluminium alloy were integrated into the preferred CAD software for die ' design; 3DQuickPress.
• The modified die reconstruction library, which consisted of upper and lower die shoes, a punch supporter,  a punch retainer, a stripper plate, a die plate and a die supporter to supplement the updated version of 3DQuickPress. This could greatly simplify the process for die reconstruction.
• The functions of the 3DQuickPress were enhanced through cooperation with the software developer. For example, a set of pilot holes could be defined in a simple way without doing general linear pattern/array in SolidWorks, the retaining features of punches could be selected and easi ly modified, the animation showing the pressing operation of die set could be created easily and the force rebuild errors were eliminated in the updated version ofthe software.
• The in-house developed user training manual, animations and videos were well prepared for the students.
• Twelve 3D configurations of the practica l sheet-metal-forming dies for case study demonstrations were constructed.

However, the support of the current software developer as well as the computer hardware were very limited and incompatible with ourrequirements, respectively. The incompatibility of SolidWorks and 3DQuickPress versions was also a critical difficu lty during the project implementation. More figures, rather than texts/words and case studies in the user training manual, are certainly required to facilitate understanding and improve learning ability. The case studies of die designs were focused mainly on the mass production of the simple but practical blanking/piecing sheet metal components due to the shortage of project time and budget. More advanced and complicated examples, having components with bending, forming and drawing features, will be developed in the future. In fact, these deliverables will also be recommended to enrich the students' learning outcomes for the subject of "Integrated Product and Process Design". Furthermore, due to the success of this project, a similar approach is recommended to be extensively applied for teaching and learning of advanced level of "Tool Design". This can efficiently stimulate the students' proactive learning and understanding in this area.