Project Details
Projekt
Development of a manufacturing process for functional components with a varying sheet thickness profile (T10#)
Subject Area
Primary Shaping and Reshaping Technology, Additive Manufacturing
Term
from 2021 to 2023
Project identifier
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 68237143
Within the TCRC 73, the process of orbital forming was investigated fundamentally and the technolog-ical potential was shown. The process understanding referring to the possibility of controlled material flow forms the basis for the present transfer project. A high complexity as well as a long process dura-tion are unsolved challenges today. The system specific dependency of a tumbling plate results in an additional restriction of a maximum tumbling angle of Θmax = 1°, which severely limits the forming ca-pacity.The aim of the submitted transfer project is the substitution of the conventional orbital forming process by an iterative combination of tilting and turning. The overall objective is to extend the process limits known from fundamental research by using an adapted process. On the one hand, the essential find-ings of fundamental research regarding the control of the material flow should be applied. On the other hand, the formability and efficiency of the process should be improved. A basic advantage of the new process is the ability to use a conventional press, thus significantly reducing the process time and removing the restriction of a maximum tumbling angle of Θmax = 1°. An increase of the tumbling angle offers the potential of a reduced contact area, realizing an increased forming capacity.Challenges of the innovative manufacturing process can be derived from the modified process charac-teristics and forming kinematics. Besides the analysis of the tilting process, the number of forming steps required to achieve the desired form filling should be evaluated. In addition, the maximum tilt angle and the resulting influence on the functional components must be evaluated. In order to in-crease the load capacity, the hardening behaviour of strongly hardened high performance steels dur-ing the forming process should be analysed to verify the omission of a subsequent hardening process. The target parameters should be optimized by an investigation and application of comprehensive pro-cess strategies.The process characteristics to be investigated can be reproduced by using the current orbital forming process setup, allowing the characteristic tilting kinematic. Thus, the new process can be investigated fundamentally and at the same time, the effort for the production of the new tool concept can be pre-vented. Therefore, the development of a suitable method to ensure the applicability is required. Due to the expected change of the material flow components caused by the modified process kinematics, a material flow control is essential. A numerical simulation is used for the analysis of the material flow. The influence of the process parameters on the actual process should be investigated by evaluating reference parts produced with the adapted process. Due to the mentioned disadvantages of the cur-rent orbital forming process setup, the results of the adapted process transferred to a flexible tool con-cept for the use on a conventional press.
DFG Programme
CRC/Transregios (Transfer Project)
Applicant Institution
Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg
