Generation and suppression of local severe plastic deformation in sectional multi-point forming

Sectional multi-point forming (SMPF) technology provides a new solution for forming large-size sheet metal. With this technique, large-size parts of sheet metal can be manufactured on a smaller multi-point forming press. But the force status and deformation of the workpiece are complicated in SMPF; the local severe plastic deformation will be produced easily in the transition region, and strain-hardening will be commonly produced subsequently. The hardening is difficult to eliminate in subsequent processes, which will largely affect the final deformation quality. In this paper, the generation of local severe plastic deformation was discussed; NURBS-based modeling method was used to construct the shape of the assortative region to suppress the defect. Experiments proved that the method is fairly effective. Finally, a plan was suggested to raise further the forming limit of materials and enhance the work efficiency by combining multi-point press forming with assortative region method.