Component variation in the production of hybrid compounds by forming with free kinematics

• Applicants: Professor Dr.-Ing. Bernd-Arno Behrens; Professor Dr.-Ing. Klaus Dröder
• Subject Area: Primary Shaping and Reshaping Technology, Additive Manufacturing
• Term: since 2016
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 318620418

Hybrid lightweight construction enables new design and layout options for structural components in the automotive and aircraft industries. The aim is to maintain economical production by optimizing the combination of dissimilar materials. Production errors, such as air inclusions in metal-plastic hybrids, must be avoided. With free kinematic forming, a manufacturing process is being researched which, as a press technology process with a flexible tool path, makes this process condition possible. In the first project phase, it was shown that, in addition to the production of hybrid composites, variant flexibility is also possible by varying the component geometry. With one tool geometry, the component geometry can be changed locally by adjusting the tool path, which is accompanied by an increase in the flexibility of the pressing process. The optimization of the component variants can be flexibly extended to the respective given requirements, such as stiffness or damping.The driving aspects for researching the manufacturing process are changing from an increase in process quality to increased process flexibility and thus flexible component-variant production with little or no additional effort for tooling, with the aim of providing process flexibility for local modification of the component geometry through process parameter variants with simultaneously short cycle times. However, the influence of the component geometry by the adaptation of the tool path and the targeted procedure for the generation of a tool geometry for component variants have not yet been solved methodically. The process properties and limits must be described both qualitatively and quantitatively to enable suitable model-based process planning methods. Also, the tool geometry design method needs to be extended to include the application of web shares for a spectrum of component variants.The aim of the entire project is a method for the press-production of hybrid metal-fiber-plastic composite structures using free kinematic active motion. The characteristic feature of the process to be researched is the pressing of a plasticizable thermoplastic matrix by means of a free-moving upper mold within a fixed lower mold, which was fundamentally investigated for 2D components in the first project period. In the second phase, the increase of part complexity from 2D geometries to 3D geometries and the generation of variants by means of variation of the tool path in the method development will be investigated. This will generate fundamental knowledge on tool and process design for free kinematic forming processes, which can be extended in the future by further degrees of freedom using the modeling and design methods developed, in order to design even more complex forming processes.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants