Simufact Forming
Predict springback, material flow and die wear — and get your tooling right first time.
Simufact Forming is the comprehensive solution for metal forming simulation, covering sheet metal stamping, deep drawing, forging, rolling and ring rolling. Engineers predict springback, material thinning, wrinkling, forming limits and die wear before committing to expensive tooling, dramatically reducing the number of physical tryout iterations required.
Material Flow and Strain Development
Real-time effective plastic strain field during a sheet metal deep-drawing operation — strain distribution, thinning and forming limits updated continuously.
Simufact Forming is the dedicated simulation solution for metal forming processes — from stamped body panels to forged turbine discs and rolled rings. It captures the large plastic deformations, contact mechanics, material flow and springback that define whether a formed part meets its dimensional specification and meets its structural performance requirements.
Springback — the elastic recovery after the punch releases — is one of the most costly challenges in sheet metal forming. Simufact Forming predicts the final springback geometry with high accuracy, enabling tooling designers to build-in the correct compensation angle so that parts hit nominal on the first physical tryout.
For bulk forming processes (forging, rolling, ring rolling), Simufact Forming simulates material flow and die fill to validate forging sequence designs, prevent underfill defects and predict grain flow and die loads — critical for optimising press capacity and die life. See why a dedicated manufacturing solver captures this better than general-purpose FEA.
- Sheet metal: stamping, deep drawing, bending, roll forming, hydroforming
- Bulk forming: forging, cold forming, extrusion, wire drawing
- Rolling: flat rolling, profile rolling, ring rolling
- Springback prediction and tooling compensation
- Forming Limit Diagram (FLD) analysis — safe, necking, fracture zones
- Material thinning, wrinkling and earing prediction
- Die wear and tool load prediction
- Multi-stage process chains: blank → blank holder → draw → trim → flange
Technical Overview
| Solver core | MSC Marc implicit/explicit FEA + dedicated forming solver |
| Elements | Shell, solid, blank, adaptive remeshing |
| Material models | Hill, Barlat, Yoshida-Uemori, Johnson-Cook, Drucker-Prager |
| Friction models | Coulomb, Shear, Stribeck, thermal-dependent |
| Process chains | Unlimited multi-stage operations |
| Outputs | Springback, strain, thinning, FLD, die load, wear |
| Compensation | Automatic springback compensation geometry export |
Talk to a Forming Simulation Expert
We can run a demonstration on geometry representative of your stamped or forged components — including your material grades and press parameters.
Right-First-Time Tooling Starts Here.
Typical outcomes from manufacturers using Simufact Forming in production tooling development.
Simufact Forming addresses the full range of metal forming challenges across sheet and bulk processes.
Springback Prediction & Compensation
Accurately predict the elastic springback after press release for any bend angle, material grade and thickness. Generate a compensated tool geometry so that the part springs back to the target profile — right on the first physical tryout.
Forming Limit & Thinning
Map effective strain against the Forming Limit Diagram to instantly identify safe, necking-risk and fracture-risk regions across the blank. Optimise blank holder force and lubrication to keep the entire part in the safe zone.
Material Flow & Wrinkling
Track material draw-in from the flange and identify regions prone to wrinkling due to compressive instability. Balance draw bead geometry and blank holder force distribution to prevent both wrinkling and necking simultaneously.
Forging & Cold Forming
Simulate open-die and closed-die forging to validate die fill and detect underfill, laps and folds. Optimise the forging sequence — number of blows, inter-stage annealing — to achieve complete die fill with minimum press load.
Rolling & Ring Rolling
Flat rolling, profile rolling, cross-wedge rolling and ring rolling simulation. Predict spread, elongation, residual stress and grain flow for rings and profiles. Optimise roll pass schedule for dimensional accuracy and material properties.
Die Wear & Load Prediction
Predict Archard wear distribution on tools and dies to identify high-wear regions and optimise coating, hardening and die material selection. Predict peak press loads to validate press capacity and die structural integrity.
From blank geometry to validated tooling compensation in four steps.
Import punch, die and blank geometry. Define material, friction, blank holder force and process sequence. Automatic mesh generation for blank and tooling.
Run the forming simulation including all process stages. Adaptive remeshing handles large deformations automatically. Fast implicit solver for sheet, explicit for crash-form processes.
Review springback geometry, strain distribution, FLD status and thinning map. Identify critical regions and optimise blank holder force, draw beads and lubricant strategy.
Generate compensated tool geometry automatically. Export modified die surfaces to CAD and verify the compensation reduces springback to within dimensional tolerance.
Simufact Forming covers the complete range of metal forming and shaping processes used in industrial production.
| Process Category | Process Types | Key Simulation Outputs |
| Sheet Metal | Stamping, deep drawing, bending, roll forming, incremental forming | Springback, thinning, FLD, wrinkling, draw-in |
| Hydroforming | Tube hydroforming, sheet hydroforming | Pressure distribution, thinning, bulge height |
| Cold Forming | Cold forging, extrusion, wire drawing, thread rolling | Material flow, residual stress, die load, work hardening |
| Hot & Warm Forming | Hot stamping (press hardening), warm forming of aluminium/magnesium | Phase transformation, martensite fraction, hardness distribution |
| Forging | Open-die, closed-die, precision forging, isothermal forging | Die fill, underfill, lap/fold, grain flow, press load |
| Rolling | Flat rolling, profile rolling, ring rolling, cross-wedge rolling | Spread, elongation, residual stress, microstructure |
Simufact Forming is used wherever precision metal forming is critical to product quality and manufacturing cost.
Body-in-white stamping panels, A-pillars, door inners, floor pans. AHSS springback compensation is a primary use case.
Titanium and aluminium sheet metal airframe components, forged engine discs and rings, rolled titanium cases.
Forged turbine discs, rolled rings, deep-drawn pressure vessel shells and end caps in Inconel and stainless.
Large-scale plate forming for pressure vessels, ship hulls and construction equipment structural members.
Micro-formed surgical instruments, stent forming, orthopaedic implant forging and precision cold-formed components.
Appliance housings, electronic enclosures, aluminium packaging — high-volume stamping operations where scrap rate directly affects margin.
Simufact Forming feeds forming-induced residual stress directly into structural analysis and fatigue assessment.
Ready to get your tooling right first time?
Book a demonstration and see Simufact Forming running on stamped or forged geometry representative of your production parts.
Frequently Asked Questions
Simufact Forming covers sheet metal processes (stamping, deep drawing, bending, roll forming, hydroforming) and bulk forming processes (forging, cold forming, extrusion, wire drawing, rolling and ring rolling).
Springback is the elastic recovery of a metal part after the forming tool releases it. Simufact Forming predicts the final springback geometry so tooling designers can build in the correct compensation angle before the first physical tryout.
Yes — it predicts material thinning, wrinkling and forming limits via Forming Limit Diagram analysis, as well as die wear and tool loads.
Simufact Forming is built on MSC Marc implicit/explicit FEA combined with a dedicated forming solver.
Yes — it supports unlimited multi-stage process chains, such as blank → blank holder → draw → trim → flange.