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The paper reports information in term of simulation settings and output results related to the Industrial benchmark 2015: extrusion benchmark is an event where participants from software houses, industries and academia are requested to simulate an extrusion process case which main experimental data are initially unknown and disclosed only after the submission of simulation results. The industrial benchmark 2015 is focused on the extrusion of a multi-cavities hollow profile with EN AW-6063 aluminum alloy. Thermal field was monitored by means of contactless pyrometers installed on the press and five thermosensors were inserted in key positions in the die. Several extrusion data were continuously acquired including the profile speed, the puller force and the extrusion load. After extrusion the profiles are analyzed in order to determine the position of the seam weld and the microstructure inside the profile cross section after air or water quenching.

Laser Texturing and Laser Engraving of free form surfaces are interesting alternative to EDM and micro milling in the fabrication of moulds and dies. The material removal rate of this process is typically very low and the maximum working area is limited by the maximum travel range of the galvanometric scanning head and also by the maximum deflection of the scanner or the surface curvature. As a consequence, in order to manufacture large or free form surfaces, a set of placements of the scanning head respect to the work piece must be calculated and controlled by the CNC. The number of these placements can be quite high due the small amount of material removed in each of them and the non-operative time spent to move the scanning head can be relevant compared to the overall time. In this work a method based on the solution of the Traveling Salesman Problem is proposed with the aim to optimise the number of displacements of the scanning head and generally in order to reduce the number of movement of the numerically controlled axes. The method that takes into account both the architecture and the dynamic characteristics of a 5 axis CNC system was implemented in the CALM (Computer Aided Laser Manufacturing) software used to program the laser path for part texturing and applied in industrial cases.