February
08, 2007:
2nd North American UserMeeting (NAUM 2007)
February 5 - 6, 2007 in Birmingham, Michigan
AutoForm’s 2nd North American UserMeeting (NAUM 2007) was
held February 5-6, 2007 at the Townsend Hotel in downtown Birmingham,
Michigan. There were approximately 90 attendees from 25 companies
including visitors from Canada, Mexico, Europe and Korea.
We thank
all the participants for their overwhelming response and very positive
feedback in making NAUM 2007 a great success! For those unable
to join us at this event, find out below what you missed! We look
forward to hosting you at the next one ….
The primary goal for NAUM 2007 was to hear from AutoForm users
about their AutoForm experiences through case-studies and business
process overviews and to introduce AutoForm’s new version
4.1 in the context of our vision and strategy for the most productive
application roadmap of AutoForm technology. It became abundantly
clear during this event – whose theme was ‘SHAPING
YOUR SUCCESS‘ - that AutoForm is globally recognized as the innovation
leader and most competent partner for metal-forming technology.
February 5, 2007 – Monday
Volker Steininger, Chief Operating Officer, AutoForm Engineering,
delivered the key-note address with his experienced global perspectives
on automotive stamping business, the evolution of simulation and
engineering technology, and its impact – past, present and
future – on this business.
This was followed with presentations by invited speakers from
automotive OEMs and suppliers who spoke about their AutoForm implementation,
application, benefits and future plans. These included:
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AutoForm Integration at Chrysler
Group
Greg Pastor, DaimlerChrysler Corporation
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AutoForm for Progressive Die
Simulation and Blank Optimization
Kevin Bedel, A-G Tool & Die Company
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Sigma
Laurent Chappuis, Die Engineering, Ford
Motor Company |
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AutoForm Application in Progressive
Die Engineering
Joseph Janieszewski, Majestic Industries Inc. |
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Simulation Technology Enables
Closer Partnership with Customer –
a Steel Supplier’s
Perspective
Yu-wei Wang & Tony Chang, SeverStal
North America |
The story of – and the innovations behind – the success
of AutoForm Engineering, and the focus of AutoForm Engineering
USA towards supporting customer success formed the theme for the
post-lunch introduction by Vallury Prabhakar, CEO, AutoForm Engineering
USA.
Waldemar Kubli, founder and CEO of AutoForm Engineering, discussed
AutoForm’s strategic solutions supporting sheet metal development
and production over a typical vehicle development time frame; he
also outlined AutoForm’s vision for application of engineering
and simulation tools over this development time frame and how they
bring tangible value to the cost-quality-time imperative. Dr. Kubli
also elaborated on AutoForm’s strategic development plan,
and partnerships including solutions for tool costing, springback
and surface quality, hotforming, and many other related topics.
AutoForm 4.1 was then introduced, in its most significant elements,
by AutoForm-USA’s Engineering Manager, Kidambi Kannan through
presentations and short software demos.
AutoForm 4.1 is a major release featuring numerous new functions,
enhancements, as well as brand new modules, e.g., solver improvements,
springback, compensation, coatings, CAD integration, data management
and much more. This heightened participants’ anticipation
for the hands-on AutoForm 4.1 workshop planned for the next day … in
particular, for a demonstration of AutoForm’s vision for
intelligent compensation based on formability and springback.
Following this, the management team – Waldemar Kubli, Volker
Steininger and Vallury Prabhakar – answered a wide variety
of questions from the audience.
At the end of the day, the entire AutoForm USA Support Team was
introduced to generous applause. The day session was followed by
cocktails and a sumptuous dinner in a friendly and relaxing environment
with an exciting raffle drawing for high-tech prizes including
an IPod, navigation system, DVD writer, etc. Congratulations to
all the lucky winners!
February 6, 2007 – Tuesday
Eric Kam from AutoForm USA, started with a presentation on “Successful
springback compensation”; which highlighted the need for
process stability as a pre-requisite for reliable dimensional control
and a roadmap using AutoForm version 4.1 technology to achieve
this stability. This was followed by two interactive (hands-on)
workshops – “Pre-Compensation Stability” and “AutoForm
4.1 for Progressive Dies” conducted respectively by Eric
Kam and Karthik Viswanathan - where over 45 attendees were able
to use AutoForm 4.1’s new features and modules.
NAUM 2007 then concluded with a relaxing lunch for all the participants.
Without exception, every attendee expressed great satisfaction
at how NAUM 2007 was organized and found the content to be very
interesting and useful. We are fully appreciative of this recognition
and will continue to maintain the highest standard of planning
and execution of such events for the benefit of our users and customers.
Thanks to one and all for making NAUM 2007 such an overwhelming
success and we look forward to seeing you all at the next AutoForm
UserMeeting!
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