Die Forming

Application ID: 18051


Die forming is a widespread sheet metal forming manufacturing process. The workpiece, usually a metal sheet, is permanently reshaped around a die through plastic deformation by forming and drawing processes.

Simulations can be carried out in order to avoid cracks, tears, wrinkles, too much thinning, and stretching. They are also useful to estimate and overcome the springback phenomenon: once the forming process is done and the forming tools are removed, the workpiece attempts to partially recover its initial shape through relaxation of the elastic stresses.

The springback can cause the formed blank to get an unexpected state of warping. To cope with this effect, it is possible to overbend the sheet. The die, the punch, and the blank holder must be manufactured to incorporate this effect. In this model, a flat metal sheet is pressed onto a curved die by a similarly shaped punch. Both the forming and the springback phenomena are modeled.

From a simulation point of view, the problem is severely nonlinear due to contact, geometric nonlinearity, and large plastic strains.

This model example illustrates applications of this type that would nominally be built using the following products: