Manufacturing Engineering Technology in SI Units, 6th Edition

Chapter 16:
Sheet-Metal Forming Processes and Equipment

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Chapter Outline
1. Introduction
2. Shearing
3. Sheet-metal Characteristics and Formability
4. Formability Tests for Sheet Metals
5. Bending Sheets, Plates, and Tubes
6. Miscellaneous Bending and Related Operations
7. Deep Drawing
8. Rubber Forming and Hydroforming
9. Spinning
10. Superplastic Forming
11. Specialized Forming Processes
12. Manufacturing of Metal Honeycomb Structures
13. Design Considerations in Sheet-metal Forming
14. Equipment for Sheetmetal Forming
15. Economics of Sheetforming Operations

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Introduction
 Products made of sheet metals are common
 Pressworking or press forming is used for general
sheet-forming operations, as they are performed on
presses using a set of dies

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Introduction
 A sheet-metal part produced in presses is called a
stamping
 Low-carbon steel has low cost and good strength and
formability characteristics
 Manufacturing processes involving sheet metal are
performed at room temperature

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Introduction

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Shearing
 Before a sheet-metal part is made, a blank is removed
from a large sheet by shearing
 The edges are not smooth and perpendicular to the
plane of the sheet

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Shearing
 Processing parameters in shearing are
1. The shape of the punch and die
2. The speed of punching
3. Lubrication
4. The clearance, c, between the punch and the die
 When clearance increases, the zone of deformation
becomes larger and the sheared edge becomes
rougher
 Extent of the deformation zone
depends on the punch speed
 Height, shape, and size of the
burr affect forming operations
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Shearing
Punch Force
 Maximum punch force, F, can be estimated from

F  0.7TLUTS 

T = sheet thickness
L = total length sheared
UTS = ultimate tensile strength of the material

 Friction between the punch and the workpiece can

increase punch force

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Shearing
EXAMPLE 16.1
Calculation of Punch Force
Estimate the force required for punching a 25-mm
diameter hole through a 3.2-mm thick annealed titanium-
alloy Ti-6Al-4V sheet at room temperature.

Solution
UTS for this alloy is 1000 MPa, thus
F  0.732 251000  0.18 MN

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Shearing: Shearing Operations
 Punching is where the sheared slug is scrap
 Blanking is where the slug is the part to be used and
the rest is scrap

Die Cutting
 Shearing operation consists of:
 Perforating: punching holes in a sheet
 Parting: shearing sheet into pieces
 Notching: removing pieces from the edges
 Lancing: leaving a tab without removing any material

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Shearing: Shearing Operations
Fine Blanking
 Very smooth and square edges can be produced by
fine blanking
 Fine-blanking process can control small range of
clearances and dimensional tolerances

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Shearing: Shearing Operations
Slitting
 Shearing operations are through a pair of circular
blades, follow either a straight line, a circular path, or a
curved path

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Shearing: Tailor-welded Blanks
 Laser-beam butt welding involves two or more pieces
of sheet metal with different shapes and thicknesses
 The strips are welded to obtain a locally thicker sheet
and then coiled
 Resulting in:
1. Reduction in scrap
2. Elimination of the need for subsequent spot welding
3. Better control of dimensions
4. Improved productivity

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Shearing: Tailor-welded Blanks
EXAMPLE 16.2
Tailor-welded Sheet Metal for Automotive Applications
 Production of an outer side panel of a car body is by
laser butt welding and stamping

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Shearing: Tailor-welded Blanks
EXAMPLE 16.2
Tailor-welded Sheet Metal for Automotive Applications
 Some of the examples of laser butt-welded and
stamped automotive-body components.

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Shearing:
Characteristics and Type of Shearing Dies

Clearance
 Clearance control determine quality of its sheared
edges which influence formability of the sheared part
 Appropriate clearance depends on:
1. Type of material and temper
2. Thickness and size of the blank
3. Proximity to the edges of other sheared edges
 When sheared edge is rough it can be subjected to a
process called shaving

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Shearing:
Characteristics and Type of Shearing Dies

Punch and Die Shape

 Punch force increases rapidly during shearing
 Location of sheared regions can be controlled by
beveling the punch and die surfaces

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Shearing:
Characteristics and Type of Shearing Dies

Compound Dies
 Operations on the same sheet may be performed in
one stroke with a compound die
 Limited to simple shapes due to:
1. Process is slow
2. Complex dies is more expensive

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Shearing:
Characteristics and Type of Shearing Dies

Progressive Dies
 For high product production rates
 The part shown below is the small round piece that
supports the plastic tip in spray cans

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Shearing:
Characteristics and Type of Shearing Dies

Transfer Dies
 Sheet metal undergoes different operations arranged
along a straight line or a circular path

Tool and Die Materials

 Tool and die materials for shearing are tool steels and
carbides
 Lubrication is needed for reducing tool and die wear,
and improving edge quality

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Shearing:
Miscellaneous Methods of Cutting Sheet Metal

 Other methods of cutting sheets

1. Laser-beam cutting
2. Water-jet cutting
3. Cutting with a band saw
4. Friction sawing
5. Flame cutting

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Sheet-metal Characteristics and Formability

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Sheet-metal Characteristics and Formability

Elongation
 A specimen subjected to tension undergoes uniform

elongation
 When the load exceeds the UTS, the specimen begins
to neck

Yield-point Elongation
 Yield-point elongation: having both upper and lower
yield points
 Lüder’s bands has elongated depressions on the

surface of the sheet

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Sheet-metal Characteristics and Formability

Yield-point Elongation

Anisotropy
 Obtained during the thermo-mechanical processing

 2 types: crystallographic anisotropy and mechanical

fibering
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Sheet-metal Characteristics and Formability

Grain Size
 Affects mechanical properties and surface appearance

 Smaller the grain size, stronger is the metal

Dent Resistance of Sheet Metals

 Dents caused by dynamic forces from moving objects
that hit the sheet metal
 Dynamic yield stress, instead of static yield stress,

should be the significant strength parameter

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Formability Tests for Sheet Metals

 Sheet-metal formability is the ability of the sheet metal

to undergo the desired shape change without failure
 Sheet metals may undergo 2 basic modes of
deformation: (1) stretching and (2) drawing

Cupping Tests
 In the Erichsen test, the sheet specimen

is clamped and round punch is forced

into the sheet until a crack appears

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Formability Tests for Sheet Metals

Forming-limit Diagrams
 Forming-limit diagrams is to determine the formability of

sheet metals

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Formability Tests for Sheet Metals

Forming-limit Diagrams
 To develop a forming-limit diagram, the major and minor

engineering strains are obtained

 Major axis of the ellipse represents the major direction
and magnitude of stretching
 Major strain is the engineering
strain and is always positive
 Minor strain can be positive
or negative
 Curves represent the boundaries
between failure and safe zones

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Bending Sheets , Plates, and Tubes

 Bending is a common industrial forming operation

 Bending imparts stiffness to the part by increasing its
moment of inertia
 Outer fibers are in tension, while the inner in
compression
 Poisson effect cause the width to be smaller in the outer
region and larger in the inner region

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Bending Sheets, Plates, and Tubes

 Approximate bend allowance is Lb   R  kT 

 T
 For ideal case, k = 0.5, b
L    R  
 2

Minimum Bend Radius

 Engineering strain during bending is

1
e
2 R T   1
 Minimum bend radius, R, is
 50 
R  T   1
 r 
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Bending Sheets, Plates, and Tubes

Minimum Bend Radius

 Increase the bendability by increase their tensile

reduction of area
 Bendability also depends on the edge condition of the
sheet
 Improve resistance to edge cracking by removing the
cold-worked regions
 Cold rolling results in anisotropy
by preferred orientation or
mechanical fibering

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Bending Sheets, Plates, and Tubes

Springback
 Plastic deformation is followed by elastic recovery when

the load is removed, called springback

 Springback can be calculated by
3
Ri  RY   RY 
 4 i   3 i   1
Rf  ET   ET 

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Bending Sheets, Plates, and Tubes

Compensation for Springback

 Springback is compensated for by overbending the part

 One method is stretch bending where the part is

subjected to tension while being bent

Bending Force
 Excluding friction, the maximum bending force, P, is

kYLT 2
P
W
 For a V-die, it is modified to P  UTS LT 2

W
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Bending Sheets, Plates, and Tubes

Bending Force
 Examples of various bending operations

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Miscellaneous Bending and Related
Operations
 Sheet metal or plate can be bent easily with simple
fixtures using a press
 The machine uses long dies in a mechanical / hydraulic
press suitable for small production runs
 Die materials range from hardwood to carbides

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Miscellaneous Bending and Related
Operations
Bending in a Four-slide Machine
 Lateral movements are synchronized with vertical die

movement to form the part into desired shapes

Roll Bending
 Plates are bent using a set of rolls.

 Curvatures can be obtained by adjusting the distance

between the three rolls

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Miscellaneous Bending and Related
Operations
Beading
 Periphery of the sheet metal is bent into the cavity of a

die
 The bead imparts stiffness to the part by increasing the
moment of inertia of that section

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Miscellaneous Bending and Related
Operations
Flanging
 In shrink flanging, the flange is subjected to

compressive hoop stresses and cause the flange

periphery to wrinkle

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Miscellaneous Bending and Related
Operations
Roll Forming
 Also called contour-roll forming or cold-roll forming

 Used for forming continuous lengths of sheet metal and

for large production runs
 Dimensional tolerances, springback, tearing and
buckling of the strip have to be considered

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Miscellaneous Bending and Related
Operations
Tube Bending and Forming
 Oldest method of bending a tube is to first pack its inside

with loose particles and then bend it into a suitable

fixture
 Thick tube can be formed to a large bend radius without
the use of fillers or plugs

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Miscellaneous Bending and Related
Operations
Dimpling, Piercing, and Flaring
 In dimpling, a hole first is punched and then expanded
into a flange
 Flanges and tube ends may be produced by piercing
with a shaped punch
 When the bend angle is less than 90°, the process is
called flaring

Hemming and Seaming

 Hemming increases the stiffness and appearance of the
part
 Seaming is joining 2 edges of sheet metal by hemming

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Miscellaneous Bending and Related
Operations
Segmented Dies
 Dies consist of individual segments placed inside the

part and expanded mechanically in a radial direction

 Inexpensive and used for large production runs

Stretch Forming
 Sheet metal is clamped along its edges and then

stretched over a male die

 Die moves upward, downward, or sideways

 Used to make aircraft wing-skin panels, fuselages, and

boat hulls
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Miscellaneous Bending and Related
Operations
Stretch Forming

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Deep Drawing
 Parts are made by having punch forces on a flat sheet-
metal blank into a die cavity, a process called deep
drawing
 Also used to make parts that are shallow or have
moderate depth
 A round sheet-metal blank is placed over a circular die
opening and is held in place with a blankholder

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Deep Drawing

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Deep Drawing
 Wrinkling can be reduced if a blankholder is loaded by
maximum punch force
 D  
Fmax  D pT UTS  0   0.7
 D p  

 The force increases with increasing blank diameter,

thickness, strength and the ratio

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Deep Drawing:
Deep Drawability
 Failure results from the thinning of the cup wall under
high longitudinal tensile stresses ratio
 Deep drawability generally is expressed by the limiting
drawing ratio (LDR) as
Max blank diameter D0
LDR  
Punch diameter Dp

 Normal anisotropy is defined as

Width strain 
R  w
Thickness strain  t

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Deep Drawing:
Deep Drawability
 R value depend on its orientation with respect to the
rolling direction of the sheet
 Thus the average is
R0  2 R45  R90
Ravg 
4

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Deep Drawing:
Deep Drawability
Earing
 In deep drawing, the edges of cups may become wavy

and the phenomenon is called earing

 Earing is caused by the planar anisotropy
 Planar anisotropy of the sheet is indicated by

R0  2 R45  R90
R 
2

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Deep Drawing:
Deep-drawing Practice
Earing
 Too high a blankholder force increases the punch force

and causes the cup wall to tear

 Draw beads are needed to control the flow of the blank
into the die cavity and reduce the blankholder forces

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Deep Drawing:
Deep-drawing Practice
Ironing
 If the clearance between the punch and the die is large,

the drawn cup will have thicker walls

 Thickness of the cup wall can be controlled by ironing,
where drawn cup is pushed through one or more ironing
rings

Redrawing
 Containers that are difficult to draw undergo redrawing

 Cup becomes longer as it is redrawn to smaller

diameters since volume of the metal is constant

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Deep Drawing:
Deep-drawing Practice
Drawing without Blankholder
 Typical range of the diameter is D0  D p  5T

Embossing
 Embossing is used for the stiffening

of flat sheet-metal panels

Tooling and Equipment for Drawing

 Common materials steels and cast irons

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Deep Drawing:
Deep-drawing Practice
CASE STUDY 16.1
Manufacturing of Food and Beverage Cans
 Aluminum beverage cans has excellent surface finish

 Detail of the can lid is shown

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Rubber Forming and Hydroforming

 Dies are made of solid materials, such as steels and

carbides
 The dies in rubber forming is made of a flexible material
(polyurethane membrane)
 In the bending and embossing of sheet metal, the
female die is replaced with a rubber pad

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Rubber Forming and Hydroforming

 In the hydroform, or fluid-forming process, the pressure

over the rubber membrane is controlled throughout the
forming cycle
 Control of frictional conditions in rubber forming is a
factor in making parts successfully

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Rubber Forming and Hydroforming

 In tube hydroforming metal tubing is formed in a die

and pressurized internally by a fluid, usually water
 Rubber-forming and hydroforming processes have the
advantages of:
1. Capability to form complex shapes
2. Flexibility and ease of operation
3. Low tooling cost

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Rubber Forming and Hydroforming

CASE STUDY 16.2

Tube Hydroforming of an Automotive Radiator Closure
 Figure shows a hydroformed automotive radiator
closure
 Sequence of operations: (1) tube as cut to length; (2)
afterbending; (3) after hydroforming

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Rubber Forming and Hydroforming

CASE STUDY 16.2

Tube Hydroforming of an Automotive Radiator Closure
 Conventional hydroforming involves the following:

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Spinning

 Spinning is a process that involves the forming of

axisymmetric parts over a mandrel

Conventional Spinning
 A circular blank of flat sheet metal is held against a
mandrel and rotated while a rigid tool deforms and
shapes the material over the mandre
 Suitable for conical
and curvilinear shapes

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Spinning

Shear Spinning
 Also known as power spinning, flow turning,
hydrospinning, and spin forging
 Use to produce an axisymmetric conical or curvilinear
shape while reducing the sheet’s thickness and
maintaining its maximum (blank) diameter

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Spinning

Tube Spinning
 The thickness of hollow, cylindrical blanks is reduced
by spinning them on a solid, round mandrel using
rollers
 Can be carried out externally or internally
 Various external and internal profiles can be produced
from cylindrical blanks with constant wall thickness

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Spinning

Incremental Forming
 Simplest version is incremental stretch expanding
 A rotating blank is deformed by a steel rod with a
smooth hemispherical tip to produce axisymmetric
parts
 CNC incremental forming uses a CNC machine tool
to follow contours at different depths across the sheet-
metal surface
 Advantages are low tooling
costs and high flexibility
in the product shapes

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Superplastic Forming

 The behavior of superplastic are where tensile

elongations were obtained within certain temperature
ranges
 Superplastic alloys can be formed into complex shapes
by superplastic forming
 Have high ductility but low strength
 Advantages:
1. Complex shapes can be formed
2. Weight and material savings
3. Little residual stresses
4. Tooling costs are lower
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Superplastic Forming

 Limitations of superplastic forming:

1. Part will undergo shape changes
2. Must be formed at sufficiently low strain rates

Diffusion Bonding/Superplastic Forming

 Fabricating of complex sheet-metal structures by
combining diffusion bonding with superplastic forming
(SPF/DB)
 Application for aerospace industry
 Improves productivity and produces parts with good
dimensional accuracy and low residual stresses
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Superplastic Forming

Diffusion Bonding/Superplastic Forming

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Specialized Forming Processes

Explosive Forming
 Used for demolition in construction, in road building
and for many destructive purposes
 In explosive forming, the entire assembly is lowered
into a tank filled with water
 The air in the die cavity is then evacuated, an explosive
charge is placed at a certain height, and the charge is
detonated

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Specialized Forming Processes

Explosive Forming
 The peak pressure, p, is given by
a
 W
3
p  k  

p = pressure, psi
K = constant that depends on the type of explosive
 R 

 The mechanical properties of parts similar to those

made by conventional forming methods
 The dies may be made of aluminum alloys, steel,
ductile iron or zinc alloys

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Specialized Forming Processes

Electromagnetically Assisted Forming

 Also called magnetic-pulse forming
 Energy stored in a capacitor bank is discharged rapidly
through a magnetic coil
 A magnetic field is produced when the coil crosses the
metal tube and generates eddy currents in the tube
 Higher the electrical conductivity
of the workpiece,
the higher the magnetic forces
 Improved dimensional accuracy,
springback and wrinkling
are reduced
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Specialized Forming Processes

Peen Forming
 Used to produce curvatures on thin sheet metals by
shot peening one surface of the sheet
 Surface of the sheet is subjected to compressive
stresses
 The process also induces compressive surface residual
stresses, which improve the fatigue strength of the
sheet

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Specialized Forming Processes

Laser Forming
 Involves the application of laser beams as a heat
source in specific regions of the sheet metal
 Process produce thermal stresses, which can cause
localized plastic deformation of the sheet
 In laser-assisted forming, the laser acts as a localized
heat source, thus reducing the strength of the sheet
metal at specific locations
 Improve formability and increasing process flexibility

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Specialized Forming Processes

Microforming
 Used to produce very small metallic parts and
components
 Small shafts for micromotors, springs and screws

Electrohydraulic Forming
 Also called underwater spark or electric-discharge
forming
 Source of energy is a spark between electrodes that
are connected with a short thin wire

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Specialized Forming Processes

CASE STUDY 16.3

Cymbal Manufacture

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Manufacturing of Metal Honeycomb
Structures
 A honeycomb structure consists of a core of
honeycomb bonded to two thin outer skins
 Has a high stiffness-to-weight ratio and is used in
packaging for shipping consumer and industrial goods

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Manufacturing of Metal Honeycomb
Structures
 A honeycomb structure has light weight and high
resistance to bending forces, used for aircraft and
aerospace components

 2 methods of manufacturing honeycomb materials:

1. Expansion process
2. Corrugation process

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Design Considerations in Sheet-metal
Forming
Blank Design
 Poorly designed parts will not nest properly
 Blanks should be designed to reduce scrap to a
minimum

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Design Considerations in Sheet-metal
Forming
Bending
 A sheet-metal part with a flange when undergo
compression can cause buckling
 Can be controlled with a relief notch cut to limit the
stresses from bending

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Design Considerations in Sheet-metal
Forming
Bending
 Right-angle bends with relief notches can be used to
avoid tearing
 It is advantageous to move the hole away from the
bend area and a crescent slot can be used

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Design Considerations in Sheet-metal
Forming
Bending
 When tabs are necessary, large radii should be used to
reduce stress concentration
 Bending sharp radii can be accomplished through
scoring or embossing

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Design Considerations in Sheet-metal
Forming
Roll Forming
 Process should be designed to control springback
 Not difficult to include perforating rolls in the forming
line

Stamping and Progressive-die Operations

 Tooling cost and the number of stations are determined
by the number and spacing of features on a part
 Advantageous to hold the number of features to a
minimum in order to minimize tooling cost

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Equipment for Sheet-metal Forming

 Proper equipment design, is needed to achieve a high

production rate, good dimensional control and high
product quality
 Traditional C-frame structure is used for ease of tool
and workpiece accessibility

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Equipment for Sheet-metal Forming

 Press selection for sheet-metal forming operations

depends on:
1. Type of forming operation
2. Size and shape of workpieces
3. Number of slides
4. Maximum force required
5. Type of mechanical, hydraulic, and computer controls
6. Features for changing dies
7. Safety features

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Economics of Sheet-forming Operations

 Sheet-forming operations are versatile and can

produce the same part
 The costs involved depend on die and equipment costs
and labor
 For small and simple sheet-metal parts, die costs and
lead times to make the dies are low
 Deep drawing requires
expensive dies and tooling
 Equipment costs depend
on the complexity of the
forming operation

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