Fundamental investigations on the production of functional components from coi
Final Report Abstract
The increasing demand for resource-efficient products and processes combined with intense economic competition poses new challenges for the manufacturing industry. The use of functionally integrated components is an innovative approach to meet strict environmental regulations. Against this background, sheet-bulk metal forming (SBMF) enables the resource-saving production of complex, functionally integrated components. Currently, pre-cut blanks are predominantly used as semi-finished products in SBMF. However, the use of mechanical grippers for component handling results in economic restrictions in terms of cycle time. Forming directly from the coil offers great potential with regard to the economical production of large quantities in short process chains. However, the use of these processes is currently limited by the occurrence of a coil-specific material flow, which leads to low component dimensional accuracy and high tool stress. Therefore, as part of the research project, a fundamental process understanding was obtained for a single-stage backward and lateral extrusion of geared components from coil, as well as approaches for extending the process limits were developed. The semi-finished product geometry and the operating mode were identified as the causes of the coil-specific, asymmetrical material flow, regardless of the process. The geometry of the semi-finished product is considered to be the cause of a different component forming parallel and perpendicular to the feed direction. Another focus was on the investigation of measures for targeted control of the material flow. This includes researching selected workpiece-, tool- and process-sided approaches with regard to their potential for reducing the coil-specific anisotropic material flow. An adaption of the coil width leads to an increased supporting effect perpendicular to the feed direction, whereby the asymmetrical component forming in and perpendicular to the feed direction can be reduced. On the process side, the influence of localized pre-hardening could be reduced by adjusting the feed width. On the tool side, an increase in friction by increasing the tool surface roughness leads to an improvement in component accuracy. The functional stability of these tool-side measures was analyzed in tool life time tests. Furthermore, a contrary interaction between for the form filling of inner and outer contours were identified.
Publications
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Investigation of Measures for Material Flow Control for a Backward Extrusion of Geared Components from Coil. Lecture Notes in Mechanical Engineering, 32-42. Springer Nature Switzerland.
Leicht, Miriam; Henneberg, Johannes & Merklein, Marion
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Numerical and experimental investigation of a backward extrusion process for forming geared components from coil. Materials Research Proceedings. Materials Research Forum LLC.
Leicht, M.
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Influence of material in sheet-bulk metal forming from coil. Production Engineering, 19(2), 225-241.
Leicht, Miriam & Merklein, Marion
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Numerical and experimental investigation of extrusion processes from coil. Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, Part B: Journal of Engineering Manufacture, 239(11), 1543-1552.
Leicht, Miriam & Merklein, Marion
