Experiences from experimental and numerical springback studies of a semi-industrial forming tool

The work reported in the present paper constitutes a part of a project on simulation of springback in sheet metal forming. Previous work in this project has been concentrated on material modeling and characterization with focus on springback applications. It has been demonstrated that, with proper considerations of all aspects of the material model and the material properties, excellent springback results can be obtained for simple problems. At the simulation of real, industrial parts, a number of additional problems are encountered. Many of these problems are associated with deviations from nominal geometries and other properties. These are examples of factors that influence the outcome of the forming process, but are unknown to the analyst, and can therefore not be considered in the simulation of the forming process. Other phenomena are known to exist, but due to their complexity, they are practically impossible to consider in industrial simulations. Examples of such phenomena are the true frictional behavior in contacts between the blank and the tools, and the flexibility of the press and the forming tool. The influence of these kinds of effects is discussed in the present paper. In the current study, a semi-industrial tool, specially designed to catch those springback problems that are encountered in the forming of real industrial, parts, is used. The tool includes several characteristics that can be found in typical forming tools, such as several draw radius steps and change-over in section geometries. Effects like flange/wall angle changes, sidewall curl and twist are obtained at springback. The sensitivity of the predicted springback is evaluated with respect to various numerical factors, such as the friction coefficient, the material model, and the mesh density. Finally, the quality of the predicted springback behavior for four different materials, commonly used in the automotive industry, is evaluated.