Papers by Keyword: Sheet Forming

Abstract: In the age of lightweight design, magnesium alloys play an increasing role in weight reduction of transport vehicles. The specific strength compared to aluminium alloys and steel grades is superior, giving the material great potential in lightweight application. The automobile and aeronautic industry use sheet metals with minimum thicknesses, making research in this field very important. Successful sheet metal forming depends on various process parameters and material characteristics. Thus, the influence of sheet thickness on the forming limit behaviour of twin-roll cast, rolled and heat-treated AZ31 was investigated. Nakajima tests were performed on a hydraulic sheet metal testing device at elevated temperatures with various sheet thicknesses from 0.6 mm to 2.0 mm. The results show an increase in formability with rising temperatures for all sheets. Furthermore, changes in formability among the sheet thicknesses were linked to their divergent microstructures, which result from the different sheet manufacturing parameters.

Abstract: A succinct description of advanced constitutive models for applications to forming process simulations is provided. These models are continuum-based because they are more efficient in terms of computation time than microstructure–based models. However, they are so–called advanced because they are considered in many scientific studies but rather scarcely used in industrial applications. In addition, the relationship between these continuum constitutive models and multi-scale approaches based on crystal plasticity, dislocation dynamics and mechanics of multi-phase materials, such as advanced high strength steels, is substantiated.

Abstract: This research work was carried out aiming to investigate the cutting characteristics of a soft metallic sheet subjected to the wedge blade indentation. The indentation of a lead alloy worksheet was conducted, experimentally using a center bevel blade in order to reveal the experimental background of the indentation. In addition, to investigate the effects of the blade tip geometry, the bevel angle of the wedge blade, on the cutting characteristics of the worksheet, the finite element method (FEM) analysis was conducted. By varying the bevel angle, the critical levels of stresses for the necking of the worksheet were detected. Also, it was found that the bevel angle affected the cutting load resistance, the necking of the worksheet and the final feature of the wedged edge.

Abstract: In this paper, tensile tests were performed at elevated temperature and strain rate in order to investigate the plastic flow behavior, anisotropic characteristics and microstructural evolution of Ti6Al4V sheets under testing conditions similar to the ones experienced during hot stamping operations. It is shown that the Ti6Al4V anisotropic characteristics under the investigated forming conditions, different from the ones of the superplastic regime, are influenced by the variation of the material texture as a function of the testing temperature. The Ti6Al4V flow stress behavior was analyzed as a function of the deformation temperature and strain rate. Afterwards, the Arrhenius constitutive model was proposed to predict the flow behavior of Ti6Al4V sheets at elevated temperature and strain rate. The statistical analysis of its predictive capabilities suggests that the Arrhenius model guarantees a good accuracy in reproducing the flow behavior of Ti6Al4V sheets.

Abstract: The springback associated with cold deep drawing of sheet metals leads to undesired dimensional changes in the final products. This is often due to the heterogeneous plastic deformation in different areas of the intended geometry that creates various stress states throughout the part. The major objective of this study is to understand the interconnection between springback, level of plastic deformation, degradation of elastic modulus and strain recovery in a CP-Ti material. The mechanical properties of the sheet material and the dependency of mechanical properties on directionality are investigated by examining samples from three orientations of parallel to the rolling direction (RD), at 45° to RD and perpendicular to RD. The degradation of elastic modulus as a function of level of plastic deformation was explored for 0° and 45° samples by conducting multi-step uniaxial loading-unloading in tension.The experimental results showed that the mechanical properties vary for each direction, with the lowest elastic modulus along RD. A significant degradation was observed in elastic modulus (up to 50% reduction) with increased plastic deformation. This resulted in more strain relaxation compared to that associated with the initial elastic modulus. For stresses below 100MPa, a nonlinear (plastic) recovery was observed, resulting in additional relaxation in the total strain upon load removal in each step of the interrupted tests. This plastic recovery behaviour is observed to be dependent on sample orientation. It is concluded that accurate prediction of springback during sheet metal forming, requires a material model which takes into accounts the directional degradation of elastic modulus and the plastic recovery as a function of plastic deformation.

Abstract: Based on elastic stress and strain states after forming and joining processes, single and assembled parts show deviations regarding their dimensional accuracy. Therefore an analysis of selected influencing factors and their influence on the dimensional accuracy of assembled parts is performed in this paper. In this article a novel approach is presented that characterizes the impact of three geometrical shapes (convex/concave/straight) and different sheet thicknesses on the dimensional accuracy along a linked forming and joining process chain. The process chain consists of a deep drawing and a clinching process. Depending on sheet thickness, material and geometrical shape, the dimensional accuracy of single parts and joined assemblies varies. For the single parts the geometry of the specimen S-rail is used. Several types of assemblies are used for the proposed approach combining this specimen with a plane sheet or a second S-rail. The FEM-tools LS-DYNA and Abaqus, are used to demonstrate this approach. Simulations and experiments with aluminum alloy 6014, mild steel CR3 and sheet thicknesses of 0.7, 1.0 and 2.0 mm are conducted for single and assembled parts. In summary, a significant improvement of the dimensional accuracy of an S-rail assembly is demonstrated using two non-dimensional accurate single parts. Future work will be to analyze frequently occurring part segmentations for the joining technologies and to optimize material mix and sheet thicknesses in order to improve deviations of the assembly to the nominal CAD geometry.

Abstract: The purpose of present study is to present experimental results and a mathematical model for the evolution of surface waviness parameters with plastic strain of Interstitial Free - IF steel sheet under uniaxial and biaxial stretching tests. Roughness and waviness are very important quality parameters to be evaluated in sheet metal forming. Various waviness profile parameters such as the arithmetic average waviness Wa, the total height peak-valley waviness Wt, maximum peak height Pp and maximum valley depth Pv were measured during uniaxial and biaxial tests. Tensile test specimens at 0º, 45º and 90º to the direction of rolling and Nakazima type specimens of IF steel were fabricated. After preparing the test specimens, incremental simple tensile and Nakazima biaxial tests with flat punch were performed to characterize the negative and positive quadrant of the Map of Principal Surface Limit Strains, MPLS, of IF steel sheet. Measurements of waviness parameters of the specimen surface at incremental plastic strain stages were performed at the same surface site. Also, during the uniaxial and biaxial tests, the following plastic strains were calculated from printed circular mesh at each incremental step: ε₁ longitudinal major strain and ε₂ transverse minor strain. From these data, curves of waviness parameters versus equivalent strain were plotted to obtain a phenomenological equation of 4th or 3rd degree polynomial type. Furthermore, the growth rates of Wa and Wt parameters with the equivalent plastic strain were assessed. From the growth rate curves, it was possible to verify how the sheet thickness imperfections evolves during straining, being possible to predict the influence of plastic strain on the waviness values of IF steel sheets. From the analysis of Wa and Wt growth rates during straining, it was possible to proposed a criteria for the onset of local necking or limit strains in the MPLS. The waviness parameters Wt is the best for characterizing the onset of local necking in sheet metal forming.

Abstract: A number of researches have conducted in order to evaluate the ductile fracture occurrence by using forming limit diagram. However, specimen shape and testing machine for obtaining forming limit diagram of sheet metal have some problems. The problem about specimen shape is occurring at the specimen edge. In uniaxial tensile test, the specimen edge may cause a defused neck in width direction and may have influence on fracture occurrence. In biaxial tensile test by using a cruciform specimen, a uniform biaxial deformation is not obtained because uniaxial tensile stress occurs at the specimen edge. Tensile test by using a specimen which does not have such edges should carry out, for example, in bulge test and multi-axial tube expansion test, specimens without edge are used. However, these methods need special machines. Therefore, new biaxial tensile testing method is required. By this method, materials deform depending on biaxial strain state by using popular pressing machines.

Abstract: Aiming at the problem that current CNC incremental forming technology can’t directly manufacture the sheet-metal part with non-horizontal end face, the method that can manufacture this kind of sheet-metal part by using the equidistant tool path parallel to the sheet metal was proposed in this paper, in which the support and sheet metal was made together and sheet metal was directly fixed on the support. In addition, the equidistant tool path parallel to the sheet metal was generated using UG software and the sheet-metal part was fabricated by using vertical CNC machining center.

Abstract: Sheet dieless digital forming is a new sheet metal dieless forming technology. This paper introduced the fundamentals of the Sheet dieless digital forming process. Based on the principle of “layered manufacture” in rapid prototype technology, this process resolves the intricate three-dimensional geometry information of the workpiece into a series of two-dimensional data, which can be used by an NC system to control a forming tool to make a curvilinear movement over the raw sheet metal layer by layer until the component wanted is formed. This paper introduced the Sheet dieless digital forming system and metal digital forming technology.