Accurate Die Design, Inc. was founded in 2001 by Raymond J. Proeber. Prior to this, Mr. Proeber had been working in the tool and die and metal stamping industries for over 23 years. 15 years were spent on the bench as a tool and die maker, during which plenty of time was also spent in the evenings doing die design "on the board". Another 8 years were spent in management serving as tool department manager and later as vice president of a prominent Milwaukee area metal stamper.
AutoCAD® and DIEMAKER™ were purchased but within one year, “All the simple stuff went overseas and I was left getting lots of 3D models that I didn’t have any way of designing dies for.” Ray said. So in 2002 he purchased SolidWorks and became a Certified SolidWorks Professional. Three large automotive type dies were designed and detailed during part of that year using SolidWorks, but he quickly realized that a die design specific software add-on similar to what he had used for making die design more efficient in 2D CAD was sorely missed using 3D SolidWorks without any such add-on.
It was around this time that a second employee was hired and in January, 2003 there were 2 different 3D die design packages being developed for SolidWorks - one in France by a company with 15 years of die design software experience and the other in China by a SolidWorks reseller. In September, 2003 Ray traveled to China to be trained in one of these packages. Days after returning from training in China he decided to abandon it. It was also during 2003 that Accurate Die Design, Inc. became a Forming Technologies Incorporated (FTI) reseller for their analysis and simulation software.
In 2004 a third employee was hired, so there were now 3 full time, experienced die designers on staff. 2004 was also the year that Logopress3 was officially introduced in the U.S. In 2005 Accurate Die Design, Inc. was named the U.S. Technical Center for Logopress3, providing all training and support and also becoming the master distributor for Logopress3 in the U.S. and parts of Canada and Mexico. In 2005 a fourth employee was hired to help support the software end of their business.
Since 2005 the software part of their business has grown dramatically and today the majority of the business is focused on software development, sales, training and support. But Accurate Die Design, Inc. continues to offer die design services to this day. The company’s plan is to never discontinue this part of the business because they feel it gives them a better understanding of their customer needs than anyone else could possibly have. It also keeps them sharp in the use of the software that they offer so that they can provide the best possible support to their customers.