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A novel process for transforming sheet metal blanks: Ridged die forming
Mark A. Carruth, Julian M. Allwood (2)*
Department of Engineering, University of Cambridge, Trumpington Street, Cambridge CB2 1PZ, United Kingdom
A R T I C L E I N F O
A B S T R A C T
Keywords:
Sheet metal
Stamping
Blanking
Up to 20% of all sheet metal produced is scrapped as blanking skeletons. A novel process is therefore
designed and examined, aiming to transform tessellating pre-blanks in-plane into the real blanks
required for stamping. Prior to blanking, the sheet is formed with a set of ridged dies, from which preblanks are cut and then attened into true blanks. Several different approaches to designing ridged dies
are evaluated by simulation and experiment, and the best results demonstrate a potential reduction in
blanking yield losses for can-making from 9.3% to 6.9%.
2013 CIRP.
1. Introduction
Around 50% of annual global production of liquid metal is used
to make sheets, and around half of this never reaches a nal
product, but instead is scrapped (and recycled) at different stages
of production [1]. These high losses cause a signicant increase in
the specic embodied energy of the nal product (i.e. energy per
kg), particularly due to the compounding effect of yield losses
along the supply chain [2].
One of the biggest sources of scrap occurs during blanking,
when coils of strip metal are cut into shapes for use in downstream
forming operations. These shapes rarely tessellate, hence the waste
material from between the blanks (the skeleton) is scrapped.
However, the shape of the blank is dictated by the shape of the nal
part and the forming process used for its manufacture, and the
optimised design of this shape has already been subject to
intensive research. An approach to estimating workpiece deformation in deep drawing introduced in [3] and subsequently named
the geometrical mapping method [4] has been extended [5] for
use in optimisation routines [6]. This inverse approach describes
the target nal shape of the workpiece with a mesh of shell
elements, and then maps each node on the nal conguration to a
point on the initial at blank. By considering only the initial and
nal blank geometries, this approach gives a rapid solution for the
major strains in the workpiece, which can be used to optimise the
initial blank geometry to minimise nal part thickness variations.
The results show a reduction of 17% in material required
compared to the original blank shape. This method has been
applied for automotive components [7] and developed using ideal
forming theory [8], a faster inverse approach [9], the ESO technique
[10] and with approximate modelling [11]. These developments
provide faster solutions while offering similar reductions in blank
masses. However, despite these reductions, if the initial blanks are
cut with blanking-presses from constant width sheets, yield losses
may be unimproved.
* Corresponding author.
0007-8506/$ see front matter 2013 CIRP.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cirp.2013.03.052
e xx x; y; t e yy x; y; t e zz constant
(1)
e zz ln
AT
A0
(2)
M.A. Carruth, J.M. Allwood / CIRP Annals - Manufacturing Technology 62 (2013) 267270
268
satises,
min W
vx ;vy
Z T Z
0
s e dV dt
(3)
where
2
2
3
(4)
Fig. 3. Summary of three die designs assessed in experimental trials. (a) Die set 1;
(b) die set 2; (c) die set 3.
Fig. 2. Overview of concept for ridged die forming process. (a) The uncut sheet is
stamped with ridged dies; (b) tessellating pre-blanks are cut from the sheet; (c) the
pre-blank is attened between at dies; (d) the pre-blank is transformed to the nal
blank geometry.
M.A. Carruth, J.M. Allwood / CIRP Annals - Manufacturing Technology 62 (2013) 267270
269
Table 1
Summary of ridge design parameters used in Section 3.
Parameter
Description
N
kR/L
li
hi
Dli
Dhi
Number of ridges
Radial length of ridge prole
Radial location of ridge i on u = 0
Difference in height between ridges i and i + 1
Radial shift in location of ridge i from u = 0 to u = p/6
Change in height of ridge i from u = 0 to u = p/6
Fig. 7. Radial displacement achieved along midlines. (a) Die set 1; (b) die set 2; (c)
die set 3.
M.A. Carruth, J.M. Allwood / CIRP Annals - Manufacturing Technology 62 (2013) 267270
270
Fig. 9. Contours of thickness strain for blanks formed using die set 2.
Acknowledgements
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