Educational and Research Issues Concerning Virtual and Real Forming of Sheet Metal

The aim of this paper is to discuss the educational issues concerning real and virtual simulation of sheet metals such as steel, magnesium and aluminum. Although expensive, aluminum and magnesium are being viewed as promising candidates in some of the automotive stamping applications. The philosophy explained in this paper deals with providing concurrent experience of real and virtual forming of sheet metals to engineers. There are several manufacturing processes like Casting, Molding, Metal Removal, Metal Forming, etc. Several different kinds of materials like metals and non-metals like plastics, ceramics and composites are considered to manufacture engineering products. Choice of a particular material depends on the type of application. One of the major challenges and goals in manufacturing is to see how to transfer several different ideas generated out of both experimental and theoretical research in to a state-of-the-art technology that can be applied to manufacture better quality products. Research, both in terms of better modeling of a manufacturing process and experimentation concerns with conducting parametric product and process design studies in order to produce near net shape (final shape) of a product. Computers no doubt are very helpful in advancing this research. Computer simulation of a manufacturing process can help in better visualization and understanding the different stages as a product is being shaped. Computer simulation deals with mimicking on a computer what it takes to do a prototyping of a product in the real world. While we learn to “think with hands” as we make prototypes and products, we learn to “think with the knowledge attained” as you perform simulation studies. It is very important to properly validate the results of a computer simulation with real experiments so that scientific tools can be eventually generated eliminating or reducing the need for making costlier and time consuming prototypes. Metal forming is divided in to bulk forming and sheet metal forming. Processes like rolling, forging, extrusion and drawing fall under bulk deformation, while bending, blanking, drawing, hole-expansion and stretching fall under sheet metal forming area. Kettering University in Flint, MI offers a sheet metal forming class (MfgE-404) based on understanding the principles behind formability of real sheet metals and a new virtual forming class (ME-510) based on simulating the real sheet metal process on a computer. Both classes need a basic understanding of manufacturing process and engineering materials. In addition, a good understanding of virtual forming requires a basic knowledge of solid modeling and finite element techniques. These two courses are unique to Kettering University. Kettering University is also very supportive of promoting undergraduate and graduate education and applied research in the real and virtual metal forming area. Many stamping industries promoted this idea of a combined real and virtual forming experience gained by engineering graduates. The mechanical and the manufacturing engineering departments are working together to achieve these goals. A NSF/CCLI proposal has been submitted last year (not funded). A revised proposal again is being prepared for submission to NSF. Recently, Kettering University funded a research initiation and improvement (RI/I) grant that deals with comparing the formability of sheets made of aluminum and magnesium with steel. Vegter, Pijlman and Huetink [1] in their paper discussed the deviations that occur due to experimental errors. Uniaxial tensile tests (ASTM E 646) were conducted on aluminum samples to predict inconsistencies in the strain state. Kuwabara and Bael [2] presented the experimental and analytical results of biaxial tensile tests to predict the yield locus of aluminum alloy 6XXX-T4. Kim, et al [3] discussed the analysis of wrinkling initiation and growth of aluminum A6114-T4 deep drawing process with controlled blank holding force. Bifurcation algorithm is introduced in the elastic-plastic finite element method. Several benchmark studies have been undertaken to predict punch force, thinning and several other characteristics of a deep drawn aluminum A6016-T4 cup [4]. The results show a lot of inconsistencies between the different studies thus necessitating the proper understanding of the material behavior and the measurement techniques used for such studies.