| Abstract: | In view of today's increasing economic pressure the industry has to rationalize in order to remain internationally competitive. Achieving higher product quality using less material and machine‐man‐hours is one possibility to reach this goal. The high‐pressure sheet metal forming of tailor rolled blanks (TRB) allows to produce optimized components specially developed for their future function and which cannot be made from conventionally rolled sheet metal. This paper aims at showing that the two processes, i. e. flexible rolling and high‐pressure sheet metal forming (HPSMF), can be well represented in finite element simulations. By linking the finite element models with a combinatory optimizing tool, it is possible to simulate and optimize the entire process chain. Two example components were used to illustrate the principle of the optimization. |
