The design of blank’s initial shape in the near net-shape deep drawing of square cup

Deep drawing process is very useful in industrial field because of its efficiency. The deep drawing is affected by many process variables, such as blank shapes, profile radii of punch and die, formability of materials and so on. Especially, in order to obtain the optimal products in deep drawing process, blank shape is very important formability factor. In this paper, the finite element method is used to investigate the cup height of the square cup drawing process. In order to verify the prediction of FEM simulation of the product’s height and forming load in the square cup drawing process, the experimental data are compared with the results of the current simulation. A finite element analysis is also utilized to acquire the designed profile of the drawn products, a reverse forming method for obtaining the initial blank’s shape according to the forward square cup drawing simulation is proposed. The design of initial blank’s shape is also certified to obtain the designed profile of drawn cups by experiment. The influences of the blank’s shape on the height of product, the forming load, the maximum effective stress and the maximum effective strain are also examined.     

Study on process parameters and its analytic application for nonaxisymmetric rectangular cup of multistage deep drawing process using low carbon thin steel sheet

Multistage deep drawing process is widely used to obtain various nonaxisymmetric rectangular cups. This deep drawing scheme including drawing and ironing processes consists of several tool sets to carry out a continuous production within one progressive press. To achieve the successive production, design and fabrication of the necessary tools such as punch, die, and other auxiliary devices are critical, therefore, a series of process parameters play an important role in performing the process design. This study focuses on the tool design and modification for developing the rectangular cup with an aspect ratio of 5.7, using cold-rolled low carbon thin steel sheet with the initial thickness of 0.4 mm. Based on the design results for the process and the tools, finite element analysis for the multistage deep drawing process is performed with thickness control of the side wall in intermediate blanks as the first approach. From the results of the first approach, it is shown that the intermediate blanks could experience failures such as tearing, wrinkling, and earing by excessive thinning and thickening. To solve these failures, the modifications for the deep drawing punches are carried out, and the modified punches are applied to the same process. The simulation results for the multistage rectangular deep drawing process are compared with the thickness distributions before and after the punch shape modifications, and with the deformed shape in each intermediate blank, respectively. The results of finite element reanalysis using the modified punches show significant improvement compared with those by using the original designed punch shapes.     

Application of a neural network to predict thickness strains and finite element simulation of hydro-mechanical deep drawing

In this paper an artificial neural network (ANN) is used to predict the thickness along a cup wall in hydro-mechanical deep drawing. This model uses a feed-forward back-prorogation neural network. After using the experimental results to train and test the network, the model was applied to new data for the prediction of thickness strains in hydro-mechanical deep drawing. The results are promising. In the present work, we also attempt to perform a finite element simulation of the process for the two dimensional axi-symmetric case using explicit finite element code LS-DYNA 2D. Counter pressure on the blank is applied by specifying the pressure boundary conditions. A comparison was made between simulated, experimental and ANN results of hydro-mechanical deep drawing using low carbon extra deep drawing grade steel sheets of 0.96 mm thickness. It was also found that by hydro-mechanical deep drawing, a higher drawability and a more uniform thickness distribution were obtained when compared to conventional deep drawing.     

板材拉深成形电控永磁压边方法研究

为了克服传统压边方法不能独立施加压边力,电磁压边能耗高且发热量大的问题,提出了一种基于电控永磁技术的压边方法。根据电控永磁技术和拉深成形工艺的特点,研制了带有磁力压边装置的拉深成形模具。采用有限元方法模拟了磁极单元和磁垫的充退磁过程,在进行磁场和力学场耦合分析的基础上,确定了以磁吸力作为压边力施加在成形板坯上的接触压力分布。由有限元软件模拟的电控永磁压边与传统压边作用下板坯的成形效果可知,两种压边方法所得拉深件的应变分布基本一致。采用电控永磁压边方法分别对直径为180 mm和195 mm的08Al板坯（厚度为0.98 mm）进行了拉深实验,拉深高度为48 mm,结果表明,电控永磁压边方法可以实现压边力的独立加载,能够提供足够大的压边力。最后,分别计算了采用传统压边方法、电磁压边方法和电控永磁压边方法的能量消耗,其中,电控永磁压边方法节能效果最好,相对于电磁压边方法,节能高达95%以上。     

Blank optimization for sheet metal forming using multi-step finite element simulations

The present study aims to determine the optimum blank shape design for deep drawing of arbitrary shaped cups with a uniform trim allowance at the flange, i.e., cups without ears. The earing, or non-uniform flange, is caused by non-uniform material flow and planar anisotropy in the sheet. In this research, a new method for optimum blank shape design using finite element analysis is proposed. The deformation process is first divided into multiple steps. A shape error metric is defined to measure the amount of earing and to compare the deformed shape and target shape set for each stage of the analysis. This error metric is then used to decide whether the blank needs to be modified. The blank geometry change is based on material flow. The cycle is repeated until the converged results are achieved. This iterative design process leads to optimal blank shape. To test the proposed method, three examples of cup drawing are presented. In every case converged results are achieved after a few iterations. The proposed systematic method for optimal blank design is found to be very effective in the deep drawing process and can be further applied to other sheet metal forming applications such as stamping processes.     

Flow characteristics of accelerating pump in hydraulic-type wind power generation system under different wind speeds

Influences of hydraulic pressure on forming features in micro hydro deep drawing are different from those in normal drawing due to the small size of specimens. In this study, micro hydro deep drawing of SUS304 sheets was carried out in order to study the impacts of the hydraulic pressure on the quality of the drawn cup. Experimental results indicate that there is a critical hydraulic pressure range from 3 to 6 % of the blank’s initial yield stress, where wrinkling and earing development trends change twice. The wrinkling and the earing of the drawn cup also reach their local extremes in the critical pressure range. The cup earing value moves in the opposite direction from the wrinkling value. Hydraulic pressure affects the wrinkling and the earing of the drawn cup through changes in the micro-frictional condition, the shape of the blank and its strain-stress state. Micro-finite element (FE) simulation which takes these factors as well as the material size effects into consideration showed similar results to the experimental ones, thus validating the experimental results and the suitability of the micro-simulation model for micro-forming FE simulation. The experimental and simulation results indicate that the critical hydraulic pressure based on the blank’s initial yield stress can restrict the wrinkling and the earing of the drawn cup. Ultra-high pressure has the potential to avoid the cup wrinkling and earing.     

拉深工艺中脉动压边力控制方法

压边力是板料拉深成形过程的重要工艺参数之一 ,合理控制压边力的大小可避免起皱或破裂缺陷。采用脉动变化的压边力控制拉深工艺 ,可提高成形极限及拉深件的表面质量。本文采用数值模拟方法研究了脉动变化压边力的振幅、振频对成形的影响。     

Experimental and finite element investigation on wrinkling of circular single layer and two-layer sheet metals in deep drawing process

This paper deals with the comparison of wrinkling behavior of both single and two-layer sheets in the deep drawing process. Unfortunately, due to the significant difference in the material properties of the two layers, it is very challenging for the finite element method to predict the location and relative possibility of wrinkling in the multilayer sheets. Blank holder force (BHF) has a significant effect on the failure mode of sheet metals. By decreasing BHF, wrinkling turns out as the principal failure mode, whereas its increase results in splitting and fracture. Thus, this paper investigates the effect of blank holder forces on wrinkling and fractures in drawing process of single and two layers. Moreover, the effect of material and arrangement of layers on wrinkling, fracture, and required deformation forces in the cylindrical deep drawing will be discussed. Results show that the optimum blank holder force for two-layer sheets is affected by the material and arrangements of lay-ups.     

A hybrid NN-FE approach to adjust blank holder gap over punch stroke in deep drawing process

In deep drawing process, the blank holder plays a key role in adjustment of metal flow into the die cavity. Moreover, the quality of drawn parts is extremely affected by this flow. There are two methods of treating the blank holder in deep drawing and its simulation. One is blank holder force (BHF) and the other is blank holder gap (BHG), defined as the fixed distance between the blank holder and the die surface. In previous studies, a large number of experimental techniques have been used to study BHF; however, the amount of theoretical and numerical simulation work to study BHG is insufficient. In the present study, the concept of BHG profile, i.e., variation of BHG over punch stroke is introduced and it is shown that a properly selected BHG profile can improve the section thickness of formed part and result in the drawing of deeper parts. Here, two methods for the optimization of BHG profile are devised, i.e., the local optimization and the global optimization methods. In the first approach, the best BHG in each punch step is determined and finally, the local optimized BHG profile is achieved. In the second method, however, the empirical model for the prediction of final minimum section thickness in terms of BHG profile is obtained using design of experiments and neural networks. In the next stage, the proposed model is implanted into a simulated annealing optimization procedure to identify a proper BHG profile that can produce the desired blank thickness. Afterward, the BHG profile approach is applied to a variety of initial thicknesses, blank diameters, and materials in order to examine the robustness of method. In this paper, ABAQUS finite element package is used to gather finite element (FE) data and several experiments are performed to verify the FE results.     

Experimental and mathematical analysis of simulation results for sheet metal parts in deep drawing

In this paper, deep drawing of conical and cylindrical cups without blank holder is investigated using a conical die design. These cups are produced by pushing circular blanks by pushing the flat head punch in a single stroke. ANSYS APDL 14.0 was then used to investigate the effects of die and punch geometry, half-cone angle, die and punch fillet radius, and drawing load. The thickness distribution of the cup was numerically investigated to determine the optimal process design, and mathematical analysis was adopted to determine the thickness distribution and longitudinal stress calculation. An experimental set-up was designed to validate the simulation results for conical and cylindrical shaped sheet-metal cups. Tensile tests were carried out to obtain the flow of the stress-strain curve for the simulation. The drawing characteristics of materials were investigated by performing Erichsen cupping and Vickers hardness tests. Experiments were conducted on blanks of aluminum alloys and stainless steel with initial thicknesses of 1.5 mm. A cylindrical cup of ss304 with LDR of up to 2.2 and conical cup of AA1100 with LDR of up to 2.7 were successfully achieved. Finite element simulation results showed good agreement with the mathematical and experimental results.     

A knowledge-based parametric design system for drawing dies

The design of drawing dies is a very complex and knowledge-intensive process. This paper describes a knowledge-based parametric design system for drawing dies which requires only a minimum set of parameters to be set before it is able to complete the design of the main components of a die, such as upper dies, lower dies, and blank holders. This minimum set of parameters includes blank sizes, die faces, punch open lines, drawing strokes, and press data. This design system implemented on top of the Pro/E CAD software consists of a drawing die knowledge base, a subcomponent inferencer, a dimension calculator, a subcomponent generator, a system coordinator, and a user interface. We use the design of drawing dies for inner wheel house as a concrete example to show that our system can greatly improve the design quality while reducing the development time and cost.     

Hydrodynamic deep drawing process assisted by radial pressure with inward flowing liquid

A radial pressure can reduce drawing force and increase drawing ratio in hydrodynamic deep drawing. However, conventional hydrodynamic deep drawing cannot attain a radial pressure higher than the pressure in the die cavity. In this research, a modified method, named hydrodynamic deep drawing assisted by radial pressure with inward flowing liquid, was proposed and investigated using both primarily experimental and numerical simulation analysis. A radial pressure higher than the pressure in the die cavity was realized by means of the inward flowing of the liquid during this process. After preliminary experimental validation, FEM was used to explore the forming process. The results from the simulation were compared with those from the experiment. The effects of the radial pressure on the wall thickness distribution, punch force, and compressive stress in the blank flange were studied with assistance of numerical simulation. The process window for radial pressures versus drawing ratios was established in 2Al2O alloy experimentally and cups with drawing ratio of 2.85 were successfully formed.     

圆锥形凹模径向分块压边拉深工艺实验研究

采用圆锥形凹模拉深工艺可以提高成形极限,但需要用压边圈将板坯先压成与凹模面吻合的形状,当变形程度较大时,板坯很容易起皱。为了克服这一缺点,提出了将圆锥形凹模与径向分块压边方法结合的工艺,该工艺可有效改善压边圈与板坯的约束状态,从而达到抑制起皱的目的。对圆筒形件的拉深成形,采用了刚柔复合的径向分块压边圈结构,设计了圆锥形凹模径向分块多压边圈拉深模,取不同凹模半锥角的圆锥形凹模进行了圆筒形件的拉深成形实验。实验表明,新的压边方法能有效克服初始成形过程的起皱,可与锥度较小的凹模一起使用。采用凹模半锥角为45°的凹模,得到AA5754、AA6061和08Al三种板材的极限拉深系数分别为0.410、0.431、0.373,显著提高了成形极限。对圆锥形凹模的拉深成形,给出了理论计算成形极限的方法,理论与实验结果非常接近。     

Experimental Investigation on Micro Deep Drawing of Stainless Steel Foils with Different Microstructural Characteristics

In the present work, austenitic stainless steel(ASS) 304 foils with a thickness of 50 μm were first annealed at temperatures ranging from 700 to 1100℃ for 1 h to obtain different microstructural characteristics.Then the effects of microstructural characteristics on the formability of ASS 304 foils and the quality of drawn cups using micro deep drawing(MDD) were studied, and the mechanism involved was discussed. The results show that the as-received ASS304 foil has a poor formability and cannot be used to form a cup using MDD. Serious wrinkling problem occurs on the drawn cup, and the height profile distribution on the mouth and the symmetry of the drawn cup is quite nonuniform when the annealing temperature is 700 ℃. At annealing temperatures of 900 and 950 ℃, the drawn cups are both characterized with very few wrinkles, and the distribution of height profile, symmetry and mouth thickness are uniform on the mouths of the drawn cups. The wrinkling becomes increasingly significant with a further increase of annealing temperature from 950 to 1100 ℃. The optimal annealing temperatures obtained in this study are 900 and 950 ℃ for reducing the generation of wrinkling, and therefore improving the quality of drawn cups. With nonoptimized microstructure, the distribution of the compressive stress in the circumferential direction of the drawn foils becomes inhomogeneous, which is thought to be the cause of the occurrence of localized deformation till wrinkling during MDD.     

A formability index for the deep drawing of stainless steel rectangular cups

The effects of process parameters on the formability of the deep drawing of rectangular cups made of SUS304 stainless steel were investigated by both the finite element analysis method and the experimental approach. A statistical analysis was employed to construct an orthogonal chart which reflects the effects of the process parameters and their interactions on the formability of rectangular cup drawing. The material properties and the forming limit diagram (FLD) of SUS304 stainless steel were obtained from the experiments conducted in the present study and were employed by the finite element simulations. In the finite element analysis, the strain path that led to fracture in the drawing process was examined and the failure modes caused by different process parameters were also identified. With the help of statistical analysis, a formability index for the deep drawing of SUS304 stainless steel rectangular cups was constructed and the critical value of the formability index was determined from the finite element simulation results. The actual drawing processes of rectangular cups were also performed in the present study. The validity of the finite element simulations and the formability index were confirmed by the good agreement between the simulation results and the experimental data. The formability index proposed in the present study provides a convenient design rule for the deep drawing of SUS304 stainless steel rectangular cups.     

An Analysis of Draw-Wall Wrinkling in a Stamping Die Design

Wrinkling that occurs in the stamping of tapered square cups and stepped rectangular cups is investigated. A common characteristic of these two types of wrinkling is that the wrinkles are found at the draw wall that is relatively unsup-ported. In the stamping of a tapered square cup, the effect of process parameters, such as the die gap and blank-holder force, on the occurrence of wrinkling is examined using finite-element simulations. The simulation results show that the larger the die gap, the more severe is the wrinkling, and such wrinkling cannot be suppressed by increasing the blank-holder force. In the analysis of wrinkling that occurred in the stamping of a stepped rectangular cup, an actual production part that has a similar type of geometry was examined. The wrinkles found at the draw wall are attributed to the unbalanced stretching of the sheet metal between the punch head and the step edge. An optimum die design for the purpose of eliminating the wrinkles is determined using finite-element analysis. The good agreement between the simulation results and those observed in the wrinkle-free production part validates the accuracy of the finite-element analysis, and demonstrates the advantage of using finite-element analysis for stamping die design.     

板液力成形技术及其应用

针对板液力成形原理、特点及其最新技术进行了讨探.从不同的工艺方法入手,介绍了无模液力柔性成形技术、温介质液力成形技术、成对液力成形技术等几种先进的成形工艺,并对其中的关键技术问题进行了分析.该技术在汽车行业的应用可有效地控制变截面板的成形过程,为大幅度降低车身重量、减少能耗,提供了有力的技术支持.     

The role of die curvature in the performance of deep drawing (hydro-mechanical) processes

A hydromechanical deep drawing process (which replaces the conventional rigid blank-holder tool with a hydrostatic fluid pressure) is utilized to study the roles played by die curvature, interfacial friction, material hardening, etc. in deep drawing performance. The analytical study is based on limit analysis in plasticity (applying both the upper and the lower bounds simultaneously) with a special emphasis on the geometry of the die profile. The resulting relationships between the various parameters obtained through the bounds are backed by an independent numerical solution using Woo's finite difference scheme. The associated experiments, with which the limit analysis is compared, were conducted with aluminium blanks at various die radii and with various holding fluid pressures.The relatively close proximity of the above solutions, in describing the observed behaviour of the process, enables one to draw a few general conclusions about the strength of the limit analysis in describing realistic deep drawing processes. Also potential improvements concerning the choice of die radius of curvature and the blank holding force are indicated.     

盒形件无模充液拉深液压加载路径的研究

凹模型腔内的液体预胀形压力和工作压力是决定充液拉深过程中能否拉深出合格零件的重要工艺参数.通过采用Dynaform软件,对无模充液拉深盒形件工艺进行数字仿真,就液体压力参数对板料成形性能影响进行分析与研究.结果表明,合理地控制凹模型腔内液体加载路径和压力参数可以有效地提高板料的成形性能和成形件质量.并由液体压力所带来的摩擦保持效应可使成形件壁厚分布均匀,一次拉深的盒形件最大相对高度可达到4.25.     

Increasing the drawing height of conical square cups using anti-lock braking system (ABS)

This paper deals with increasing the drawing height of metal conical square cups with anti-lock braking system (ABS). A novel technique enabling higher drawing height than that achieved in the conventional deep drawing process is introduced, and the principle of the process is explained in this paper. Results of experiments conducted using aluminum alloyed Al-1050 blanks of thickness of 1 mm to draw conical square cups are reported here. Measured drawing load, drawing height and thickness distributions were compared with those obtained from the conventional method. The experimental results showed that higher drawing height of the cup can be achieved by the use of ABS.