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Sheet Metal Forming

Processes
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Introduction
Products made through the sheet metal processing include automobile
bodies, utensils, almirah, cabinets appliances, electronic components,
electrical components, aerospace parts, refrigeration and air conditioning
parts, etc.
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Sheet Metal Working
Forming and related operations performed on metal
sheets, strips, and coils.
High surface area-to-volume ratio of starting metal,
which distinguishes these from bulk deformation.
Often called pressworking or press forming because
presses perform these operations
Parts are called stampings
Usual tooling: punch and die
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Advantages of sheet metal processes
Sheet metal parts offers the advantage of light
weight and versatile shape as compared to
those made by casting/forging.
Low carbon steel is the most commonly used
sheet metal (cost, strength, formability).
Aluminum and titanium are the most common
sheet materials for aircraft and aerospace
applications.
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Basic types of Sheet Metal Processes
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Sheet Metal Cutting
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Shearing
Shearing is a cutting operation used to remove a blank of
required dimensions from a large sheet.
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Shearing
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Shearing
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Blanking and Punching
Fig: Steps in production of washer
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Clearance in sheet metal cutting
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Clearance in sheet metal cutting
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Punch and Die Size
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Bending Force
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Bending
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Spring Back
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Compensation for springback
It is usually compensated for by over bending
the part.
Stretch bending, in which the part is subjected to
tension while being bent also counters the
springback.
Bending may also be carried out at elevated
temperatures to reduce the springback.
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Bend Allowance
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Minimum Bend Radius
As the ratio of bend radius to the thickness of
the sheet (R/t) decreases, the tensile strain on
the outer fibers of sheet increases.
If R/t decreases beyond a certain limit, cracks
start appearing on the surface of material. This
limit is called minimum bend radius.
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Minimum Bend Radius
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Tight radius bends (folds) require metal with ~40% ductility
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Bending Force
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Deep Drawing
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Drawing
It is a process of cold forming of a flat blank of sheet metal
into a hollow vessel without much wrinkling, trimming, or
fracturing.
The process involves forcing the sheet metal blank into a die
cavity with a punch.
Punch forces a flat sheet metal into a deep die cavity
Round sheet metal block is placed over a circular die opening
and held in a place with blank holder & punch forces down
into the die cavity
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Deep Drawing
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Earing or planar anisotropy :
Edges of cups may be wavy this
phenomenon is called Earing
The above condition is called
planar anisotropy
Del R = R0 2 R45 + R 90 / 2
Where Del R = 0 => no ears formed
Height of the ears increases Del R
increases.
Fig 16.45 Earning in a drawn steel
cup, caused by the planar
anisotropy of the sheet metal
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Lowers forces and increases drawability
commonly used lubricants are mineral oils ,soap
solutions,heavy duty emulsions.
Tooling & equipment for drawing :
Tool & die materials are tool steels cast irons carbides
Equipment is hydraulic press or mechanical press
Lubricants
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Tests of Drawing Feasibility
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Aluminum beverage cans
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Spinning
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Spinning
Metal spinning, also known as spin forming or spinning or
metal turning most commonly, is a metalworking process by
which a disc or tube of metal is rotated at high speed and
formed into an axially symmetric part. Spinning can be
performed by hand or by a CNC lathe.
Shaping thin sheets by pressing them against a form with a
blunt tool to force the material into a desired form
Commercial applications include rocket nose cones, cookware,
gas cylinders, brass instrument bells, and public waste
receptacles.
Conventional spinning :
A circular blank if flat or performed sheet metal hold against a
mandrel and rotated ,while a rigid metal is held against a
mandrel and rotated ,wile a rigid tool deforms and shapes the
material over the mandrel.
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Fig 16.40 (a) Schematic illustration of the conventional spinning process (b) Types of
parts conventionally spun.All parts are antisymmetric
Shear Spinning
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Shear spinning
Known as power spinning, flow turning, hydro-
spinning, and spin forging
Produces axisymmetric conical or curvilinear shape
Single rollers and two rollers can be used
It has less wastage of material
Typical products are rocket-motor casing and missile
nose cones.
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Tube spinning
Thickness of cylindrical parts are reduced by spinning
them on a cylindrical mandrel rollers
Parts can be spun in either direction
Large tensile elongation up to 2000 % are obtained within
certain temperature ranges and at low strain rates.
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