Sheet Metal Working

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 Content
• Sheet metal working Unconventional forming
– Shearing • High energy rate forming
– Blanking • Explosive forming
– Bending
– Stretch forming
• Electromagnetic forming
– Deep Drawing • Electro hydraulic forming
– Spinning
– Piercing
– Swaging
– Embossing
– Coining
• Formability diagram
• Super plasticity

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 Introduction
• Sheet metal forming is a process that
materials undergo permanent deformation
by cold forming to produce a variety of
complex three dimensional shapes.
• The process is carried out in the plane of
sheet by tensile forces with high ratio of
surface area to thickness.
• High rate of production and formability is
determined by its mechanical properties.
• Friction conditions at the tool-metal interface
are very important and controlled by press
conditions, lubrication, tool material,
surface condition and strip surface
condition.

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 Bulk forming Vs. Sheet Forming
• Bulk forming
– Rolling, extrusion, forging, drawing
– Mostly compressive stress
– process changes in thickness or dimensions of workpiece
– Workpiece subjected to triaxial stresses
• Sheet forming
– Carried only in plane sheet
– Tensile force is applied
– Compressive forces leads to buckling, folding and wrinkling
of the sheet
– Thickness is maintained to avoid necking and failure
– High ratio to surface area to thickness
– Workpiece subjected to biaxial stresses
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 Classification of sheet metal parts
(based on contour)

1) Singly curved parts

2) Contoured flanged parts,
i.e., parts with stretch
flanges and shrink flanges.
3) Curved sections.
4) Deep-recessed parts, i.e.,
cups and boxes with either
vertical or sloping walls.
5) Shallow-recessed parts, i.e.,
dish shaped, beaded,
embossed and corrugated
parts.

Figure: (a) Singly curve (b) Stretch flange

(c) Shrink flange (d) Curved section
(e) Deep drawn cup (f) Beaded section
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Classification of sheet metal forming
(based on operations)

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 Forming Equipments

Forming equipments include

1) Forming presses
2) Dies
3) Tools

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 Forming machines

1) Mechanical presses
- energy stored in a flywheel is
transferred to the movable slide on
the down stroke of the press.
- quick - acting , short stroke.

2) Hydraulic presses
- slower - acting, longer stroke.

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 Action of presses

(according to number of slides, which can be operated independently of each

other.)
1) Single - action press
- one slide
- vertical direction
2) Double - action press
- two slides
- the second action is used to operated the hold-down, which prevents
wrinkling in deep drawing.
3) Triple - action press
- two actions above the die, one action below the die.

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Tooling
Basic tools used with a metalworking
press are the punch and the die.

• Punch - A convex tool for making

holes by shearing , or making surface
or displacing metal with a hammer.
– Punch is moving element
• Die - A concave die
Punch and die in stamping

Die Materials:
High alloy steels heat treated
for the punches and dies.

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Punch and die in stamping
Compound dies
• Several operations can be performed
on the same piece in one stroke of the
press.
• Combined processes and create a
complex product in one shot.
• Used in metal stamping processes of
thin sheets.

Transfer dies
• Transfer dies are also called
compounding type dies.
• The part is moved from station to
station within the press for each
operation.

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A die set is composed of
1) Punch holder which holds punch plate connected with blanking and
piecing punches for cutting the metal sheet.
2) Die block consists of die holder and die plate which was designed to
give the desired shape of the product.
3) Pilot is used to align metal sheet at the correct position before
blanking at each step.
4) Striper plate used for
a) alignment of punch and die blocks
b) navigate the punch into the die using
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 Forming Method
There are a great variety of sheet metal forming methods,
mainly using shear and tensile forces in the operation.

• Progressive forming
• Rubber hydroforming
• Bending and contouring
• Spinning processes
• Explosive forming
• Shearing and blanking
• Stretch forming
• Deep drawing
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 Progressive forming
• Punches and dies are designed so that successive stages in
the forming of the part are carried out in the same die on
each stroke of the press.
• Progressive dies are also known as multi-stage dies.

Example: progressive blanking

and piercing of flat washer.

• The strip is fed from left to right.

• The first punch is to make the hole for
the washer.
• The washer is then blanked from the
strip. At the same time, the punch A is
piercing the hole for the next washer.
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 Progressive die

Metal sheet used in

blanking process

• Optimise the material usage.

• Determining factors are
1) volume of production
2) the complexity of the shape

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Progressive die
 Rubber hydroforming
• Using a pad of rubber or polyurethane
as a die.
• A metal blank is placed over the form
block, which is fastened to the bed of
a single - action hydraulic press.
• During forming the rubber (placed in
the retainer box on the upper platen
of the press) transmits a nearly
uniform hydrostatic pressure against
the sheet.
• Pressure ~ 10 MPa, and where higher
local pressure can be obtained by
using auxiliary tooling.
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 Hydroforming

Stamp hydroforming machine setup

A drawing of hydroforming setup with fluid
with a fluid supplied from one side of
supplied from to both sides of the materials.
the draw blank

• Used for sheet forming of aluminium alloys and reinforced

thermoplastics.
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 Bending and contouring
a) Three-roll bender: sometimes does not
provide uniform deformation in thin-
gauge sheet due to the midpoint of the
span  localisation of the strain. Often
need the forth roll.
(b) Wiper-type bender: The contour is
formed by successive hammer blows on
the sheet, which is clamped at one end
against the form block. Wiper rolls must
be pressed against the block with a
uniform pressure supplied by a hydraulic
cylinder.
(c) Wrap forming: The sheet is compressed
against a form block, and at the same
time a longitudinal stress is applied to
prevent buckling and wrinkling.
Ex: coiling of a spring around a mandrel.

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Bending and contouring machines

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 Spinning Processes
Deep parts of circular symmetry stainless
steel, such as tank heads, television cones.
Materials: aluminium and alloys, high
strength - low alloy steels, copper,
brass and alloys

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 a) Manual spinning b) Shear spinning

• The metal blank is clamped against a form block, which

is rotated at high speed.
• The blank is progressively formed against the block, by a
manual tool or by means of small-diameter work rolls.
Note: (a) no change in thickness but diameter,
(b) diameter equals to blank diameter but thickness stays
the same.
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 Explosive forming
• Produce large parts with a relatively low production lot size.
• The sheet metal blank is placed over a die cavity and an
explosive charge is detonated in medium (water) at an
appropriate standoff distance from the blank at a very high
velocity.
• The shockwave propagating from the explosion serves as a
‘friction-less punch’

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Shearing and Blanking Shearing:
The separation of metal by the movement of
two blades operated based on shearing forces.

• A narrow strip of metal is severely

plastically deformed to the point where it
fractures at the surfaces in contact with the
blades.
• The fracture then propagates inward to
provide complete separation.

Clearance
• Proper  clean fracture surface.
• Insufficient  ragged fracture surface.
• Excessive  greater distortion, greater energy
required to separate metal.

Thickness Clearance
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Maximum punch force

• No friction condition.
• The force required to shear a metal sheet ~ length cut, sheet
thickness, shearing strength.
• The maximum punch force to produce shearing is given by
Pmax  0.7 u hl

where σu = the ultimate tensile strength

h = sheet thickness
L = total length of the sheared edge

The shearing force by making the edges of the cutting

tool at an inclined angle

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Blanking : The shearing of
close contours, when the
metal inside the contour is
the desired part.

Punching or piercing :
The shearing of the
material when the metal
inside the contour is
discarded.

Notching : The punch

removes material from
the edge or corner of a
strip or blank or part. 25
Parting : The simultaneous
cutting along at least two lines
which balance each other from
the standpoint of side thrust on
the parting tool.
Slitting : Cutting or shearing
along single lines to cut strips
from a sheet or to cut along
lines of a given length or
contour in a sheet or workpiece.
Trimming : Operation of cutting
scrap off a partially or fully
shaped part to an established
trim line.

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Shaving : A secondary shearing or
cutting operation in which the
surface of a previously cut edge is
finished or smoothed by removing
a minimal amount of stock.

Ironing : A continuous thinning

process and often accompanies
deep drawing, i.e., thinning of the
wall of a cylindrical cup by passing
it though an ironing die.

Fine blanking : Very smooth and

square edges are produced in small
parts such as gears, cams, and
levers

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 Bending
The process by which a straight length is transformed into a
curve length. Ex.: channel, drums, tanks tec.
Fibres on the outer surface are
strained and fibres on the
inner surface are contracted.
Fibres at the mid thickness is
stretched.

The bend radius R = the radius of Decrease in thickness (radius

curvature on the concave, direction) at the bend to preserve
or inside surface of the bend.
the constancy of volume.
R thickness on bending
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Condition:
- No change in thickness
- The neutral axis will remain at the centre fibre.
- Circumferential stretch on the top surface ea = shrink on the
bottom surface, eb
R strain
ea  e   1 
R bend radius b  2R / h  1
 
 
h thickness
The minimum bend radius
• For a given bending operation, the smallest bend radius can
be made without cracking on the outer tensile surface.
• Normally expressed in multiples of sheet thickness.
Example: a 3T bend radius means the metal can be bend
without cracking though a radius equal to three times the sheet
thickness T.
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 Effect of b/h ratio on ductility

• Stress state is biaxial (σ2/σ1

ratio)
• Width / thickness = b/h ratio

b/h biaxiality

Strain, ductility

Effect of b/h on biaxiality and bend ductility

Cracks occur near the centre of

the street
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 Springback
Dimensional change of the formed part after releasing the
pressure of the forming tool due to the changes in strain
produced by elastic recovery.

Yield stress
Elastic modulus

Plastic strain
Spring back

Springback is encountered in all forming operations, but most

easily occurs in bending.
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For aluminium alloys and austenitic stainless steels, approximate
springback in bending can be expressed by
3
Ro  Ro 
 
Ro
 4  3 1
R  Eh 

Eh
f  
Where Ro = the radius of curvature before release of load
Rf = the radius of curvature after release of lead
and Ro < Rf
Solutions: compensating the springback by bending to a smaller
radius of curvature than is desired (over bending). By trial-and-
error.

The force Pb required to bend a length L about a radius R may

be estimated from
 o Lh2 
P   tan
b 2 R  h / 2 2
 
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 Tube bending

• Bending of tube and

structural material for industry,
architecture, medical, refinery.

• Heat induction and hot slap

bending require the heating
of pipe, tube or structural
shapes.

• Heat Induction bending is

typically a higher cost bending
process and is primarily used
in large diameter material.

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 Stretch forming
• Forming by using tensile forces to
stretch the material over a tool or form
block.

• used most extensively in the

aircraft industry to produce parts
of large radius of curvature. (normally
for uniform cross section).

• required materials with appreciable

ductility.

• Springback is largely eliminated

because the stress gradient is
relatively uniform.

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 Stretch forming equipment

• Using a hydraulic driven ram (normally vertical).

• Sheet is gripped by two jaws at its edges.
• Form block is slowly raised by the ram to deform sheet above
its yield point.
• The sheet is strained plastically to the required final shape.
Examples: large thin panel, most complex automotive stamping
involve a stretching component.

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 Diffuse necking : ( a limit of forming)
In biaxial tension, the necking which occurs in uniaxial tension is
inhibited if σ2/σ1 > 1/2, and the materials then develops diffuse
necking. (not visible)

The limit of uniform deformation in strip loading occurs at a

strain equals to the strain-hardening exponent n. u  n
φ ~ 55o for an isotropic
material in pure tension
Localised necking
• Plastic instability of a thin sheet will occur in
the form of a narrow localised neck.  followed
by fracture of the sheet.
• Normal strain along X’2 must be zero.

Localised necking in a strip in tension

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 Deep drawing
• The metalworking process used for
shaping flat sheets into cup-shaped
articles.
• Examples: bathtubs, shell cases,
automobile panels.

Pressing the metal blank

of appropriate size into a
shaped die with a punch.

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It is best done with double-action press.
• Using a blank holder or a holddown
ring
• Complex interaction between metal
and die depending on geometry.
• No precise mathematical description
can be used to represent the
processes in simple terms.

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 As the metal being drawn,
• Change in radius
• Increase in cup wall

• Metal in the punch region is thinned down  biaxial tensile

stress
• Metal in the cup wall is subjected to a circumference strain, or
hoop and a radial tensile strain.
• Metal at the flange is bent and straightened as well as subjected
to a tensile stress at the same time. 39
 Punch force vs. punch stroke
Punch force = Fdeformation + Ffrictional + (Fironing)
• Fdeformation - varies with length of travel
• Ffrictional - mainly from hold down pressure
• Fironing - after the cup has reached the maximum thickness.
• Additional factor is the force required to bend and unbend the
metal around the radius of the die

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 Drawability (deep drawing)
Drawability is a ratio of the initial blank diameter (Do) to the diameter of
the cup drawn from the blank ~ punch diameter (DP)


Do 
 e

Limiting draw ratio (LDR), LDR   
D p 

max

Where η is an efficiency term accounting for frictional losses.

Normally the average maximum reduction

in deep drawing is ~50%

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 Practical considerations affecting drawability
• Die radius – should be about 10 x sheet thickness.
• Punch radius – a sharp radius leads to local thinning and tearing.
• Clearance between punch and die should be about 20- 40% > sheet
thickness.
• Hold-down pressure – about 2% of average σo and σu.
• Lubrication of die side - to reduce friction in drawing.
• Material properties - low yield stress, high work hardening rates, high values
of strain ratio of width to thickness R.

• Since the forming load is carried by

the side wall of the cup, failure
therefore occurs at the thinnest part.
• In practice the materials always
fails either at (a) the shoulder of
the die and (b) the shoulder of the
punch.
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• Use successive drawing Redrawing
operations by reducing a
cup or drawn part to a
smaller diameter and
increased height – known
as redrawing.
Examples: slender cups
such as cartridge case and
2) Reverse or indirect redrawing :
closed end tubes.
the cup is turned inside surface
1) Direct or regular redrawing : into outside surface. Fig (c).
smaller diameter is produced by means Better control of wrinkling is
of a hold-down ring. The metal must be necessary and no geometrical
bent at the punch and unbent at the limitations to the
die radii see Fig (a). Tapered die allows use of a holddown
lower punch load, Fig (b). ring.
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 Practical considerations for round
and rectangular shells

• Different pressures (tension, compression,

friction, bending) force the material into shape,
perhaps with multiple successive operations.

Round shell
• Different flow patterns at sides and corners.
• Corners require similar flow as round shells while
sides need simple bending.
• The corner radii control the maximum draw depth.
• Centre to center distance of corners ≥ 6 x corner radius
• Bottom radius ≥ corner radius

Rectangular shell
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 To improve drawability
• To avoid failures in the thin parts
(at the punch or flange), metal in
that part need to be strengthened,
or weaken the metal in other parts
(to correct the weakest link).

• If sufficient friction is generated

between punch and workpiece,
more of the forming load is
carried by the thicker parts.

• Concerning about
crystallographic texture (slip
The dependence of limiting draw ratio system), degree of anisotropy or
on R and work hardening rate, n strain ratio R.
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The plastic strain ratio R measures the normal anisotropy, which
denotes high resistance to thinning in the thickness direction.
ln wo / w
R
ln(ho / h)
Where wo and w are the initial and final width
ho and h are the initial and final thickness.
But it is difficult to measure thickness on thin sheets, therefore
we have
ln wo / w
R 
ln wL / wo Lo 

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 Forming limit criteria

• Tensile test only provides ductility, work hardening, but it is in a

uniaxial tension with frictionless, which cannot truly represent
material behaviours obtained from unequal biaxial stretching
occurring in sheet metal forming.

• Sheet metal formability tests are designed to measure the

ductility of a materials under condition similar to those found
in sheet metal forming.

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Erichsen cupping test • Simple and easy.
• symmetrical and equal biaxial
stretching.
• Allow effects of tool-workpiece
interaction and lubrication on
formability to be studied.
• The sheet metal specimen is
hydraulically punched with a 20 mm
diameter steel ball at a constant load
of 1000 kg.
• The distance d is measured in
millimetres and known as Erichsen
number.

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Forming limit diagram

• The sheet is marked with a close

packed array of circles using
chemical etching or photo printing
techniques.
• The blank is then stretched over a
punch, resulting in stretching of
circles into ellipses.
• The major and minor axes of an
ellipse represent the two principal
strain directions in the stamping.
• The percentage changes in these
strains are compared in the diagram.
• Comparison is done in a given
thickness of the sheet.

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Example: A grid of 2.5 mm circles is electroetched on a blank of sheet steel.
After forming into a complex shape the circle in the region of critical strain
is distorted into and ellipse with major diameter 4.5 mm and minor
diameter 2.0 mm. How close is the part to failing in this critical region?

Major Strain e1= (4.5-2.5)/2.5 x 100 = 80%

Minor strain e2=(2.0-2.5)/2.5 x 100 = -20%

The coordinates indicate that the part is in

imminent danger of failure.

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 Defects in formed parts

• Edge conditions for blanking.

• Local necking or thinning or
Spring back
buckling and wrinkling in regions
of compressive stress.
• Springback tolerance problems.
• Cracks near the punch region in
deep drawing  minimised by
increasing punch radius, lowering
punch load.
Edge condition of blanking

Cracks new punch region

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• Radial cracks in the flanges and edge of the cup due to not sufficient
ductility to withstand large circumferential shrinking.
• Wrinkling of the flanges or the edges of the cup resulting from buckling of
the sheet (due to circumferential compressive stresses) solved by using
sufficient hold-down pressure to suppress the buckling.
• Surface blemishes due to large surface area. EX: orange peeling
(pronounced surface roughness in regions of the part which have
undergone appreciable deformation) especially in large grain sized metals
because each grain tends to deform independently use finer grained
metals.
• Mechanical fibering has little effect on formability.
• Crystallographic fibering or preferred orientation may have a large effect.
Ex: when bend line is parallel to the rolling direction is difficult than
perpendicular direction.
Ex: Earing in deep drawn cup due to
anisotropic properties. Earing 
wavy edge on the tope of drawn cup which
require extensive trimming.
Earing in drawn can 52
 • Stretcher strains or ‘worms’ (flamel ike
patterns of depressions). Associated with
yield point elongation.
• Observed in low carbon steel
• The metal in the stretcher strains has
been strained an amount = B, while the
remaining received essentially zero strain.
• The elongation of the part is given by
some intermediate strain A.
• The number of stretcher strains increase
during deformation. The strain will increase
until the when the entire part is covered it
has a strain equal to B.

Solution: give the steel sheet a

small cold reduction (usually
0.5-2% reduction in thickness).
Ex: temper-rolling, skin-rolling to
Eliminate strain to stress yield point.

Relation of stretcher 53