Metal Stamping Simulation and Efficiency

Sheet metal forming simulation has proven to be accurate time after time. Why then, does the industry hesitate to simulate upfront and save time and money on the shop floor at the end of the project? Those who do reap the rewards.

This example shows the output of a metal stamping simulation job where a crash form process was proposed.

The stamping simulation clearly predicts a large folded wrinkle as the major problem with this process. The consequences of tooling this process could not have been confidently predicted up front, without sheet metal forming simulation technology.

In this case, StampingSimulation.com was able to engineer a solution which involved drawing metal with a binder, instead of crash forming.

Thankfully, the actual result you see was not a result of a bad process being tooled, but rather, this is a scaled down soft tool which was created to demonstrate how accurately this problem was predicted.

About StampingSimulation.com

StampingSimulation.com is a world wide team of specialist forming simulation and sheet metal forming engineers. With resources across three continents (North America, Europe and Australasia) we are uniquely placed to offer fast turn around times on all structural simulation, hydro forming simulations, ANSYS simulations and sheet metal forming simulations.

About AutoForm

AutoForm offers software solutions for the die-making and sheet metal forming industries, and is recognized by the Top 20 automobile producers and their customers, as the number one provider of software for product formability, die face design and virtual tryouts to the global automotive industry.

The use of AutoForm software improves reliability in planning, reduces the number of die tryouts and tryout time, and results in higher quality part and tool designs that can be produced with maximum confidence. In addition, press downtime and reject rates in production are substantially reduced.

Sheet metal stamping simulation in the real world

Williams Tooling, Dorr MI, is a regular client who use StampingSimulation.com’s SimulateLite service to simulate their solid tool designs prior to commencing tooling fabrication.

The Virtual Tryout service means the metal forming process is previewed before any hard tooling is made, meaning problems such as wrinkles and splits can be found and counter measured before any steel is cut.

Jeremy Dutkiewicz, Tool designer comments, "since incorporating sheet metal forming simulation into our company, we have seen a significant reduction in time spent in tool tryouts, often avoiding time consuming changes by getting a good result at first tryout".

The predicted splits were countermeasured by adjusting the DRAW form shape in the localized problem area and allowing it to be re-struck in the 2nd Form. Using forming simulation, it was shown that this was a successful countermeasure.

Sheet metal Simulation technology is common in large OEM companies in the industry but now the same AutoForm technology can be accessed by even the smallest toolmaker via StampingSimulation.com’s online services, delivering the same engineering services found in Tier 1 and OEM suppliers. In this case study, SimulateLite was used to find and countermeasure a splitting problem that may have otherwise only appeared at first tryout, after which costly tooling changes would have been required to rectify the problem. In addition, stretch carrier shape and design was refined as part of the simulation service.

About Stamping Simulation.com

StampingSimulation.com is a world wide team of specialist stamping simulation and sheet metal stamping engineers. With resources across three continents (North America, Europe and Australisia) we are uniquely placed to offer fast turn around times on all structural simulation, hydro forming simulations, ANSYS simulations and sheet metal stamping simulations.

Using the power of the AutoForm suite of software the StampingSimulation.com team can help tool and die manufacturers and designers with spring back, forming forces and help develop blank shapes accurately.

About AutoForm

AutoForm offers software solutions for the die-making and sheet metal forming industries, and is recognized by the Top 20 automobile producers and their customers, as the number one provider of software for product form ability, die face design and virtual tryouts to the global automotive industry.

The use of AutoForm software improves reliability in planning, reduces the number of die tryouts and tryout time, and results in higher quality part and tool designs that can be produced with maximum confidence. In addition, press downtime and reject rates in production are substantially reduced.

The capabilities of sheet metal stamping simulation Part 3

We would like to explore the capabilities of forming simulation, as well as provide some descriptions of how the technology works. So here is a quick summary of a few typical applications of metal forming simulation technology. Being aware that metal forming simulation is actually a specific application of the Finite Element Method (FEM also known as FEA) may assist your understanding.
Splitting, thinning and wrinkling checks.

It goes without saying that the primary purpose of the forming simulation step is to check how the material behaves prior to machining of any tool steel.

The results produced in the forming simulation step illustrate very clearly the calculated areas of material yielding (splitting), amounts of necking (thinning or changes in thickness) and areas of material compression (wrinkles and folds). The Forming Limit Diagram (FLD) is key to analyzing this data as it plots each element’s strain (in major and minor axis) on a graph and compares it to the material’s limits to determine if any of these defects will be present. With this information in hand, countermeasures and adjustments are made to the die face design and then the forming
simulation is re-run, until each defect is removed or an acceptable result is achieved.
Multiple-stage forming.

If a part cannot be formed in a single stage then each subsequent stage can be simulated and checked too. It is simply a matter of taking the result from each previous stage and feeding it into the next. The previous stage results may include a draw, a trim, a hole pierce or any other operation, each of which gets carried over into the next stage’s simulation.

Pierce hole roundness checks.

You may have realized already that it is possible to simulate a forming process with a hole pierced in a blank. This gives an accurate simulation demonstrating whether a hole can be safely pierced in a blank stage, then drawn, without losing its roundness or desired position (usually determined by the quality specification of the final part). Conversely, such a simulation may show that an unimportant hole will go “egg shaped” after forming, but if acceptable, it can remain as a hole pierced in the blank, as opposed to piercing it last, when maybe a cam unit or something else would be required.

Spring back check.

A springback check can be performed after any stage, for example, after the first draw stage or after the final stage. The end result is not just a number on paper of the amount of springback, but a full 3D CAD model of the part in the sprung back state (that can be exported in any CAD format). This means it is very easy to use this data to counteract the spring back or decide if the amount of spring back is acceptable or not.

Simple metal parts benefit from sheet metal stamping simulation

Die Engineering Pty Ltd, Brisbane was recently commissioned to manufacture a forming die for a simple 1.6mm stainless steel product. The process involved a developed cut, through which a forming punch would extrude material to produce a flange. While the process was relatively simple, calculating the correct cutting shape and pad pressure, was best determined with forming simulation.

"The first hit was a great success. The flange height was within 0.1mm of required height. The form was true and the raised lip almost perfect in shape and no wrinkles first time! After this outcome I would not hesitate to use Stamping Simulation again." Paul Elliston - Director, Die Engineering Pty Ltd, Brisbane, Australia.

The traditional method is to calculate pressures manually and develop the cutting profile via trial and error on the shop floor. However, sheet metal forming simulation quickly and more accurately determines these variables, based on a 3D simulation of the metal forming process.

The simulated result is equivalent to building the tooling and testing it, but the real benefit is the ability to make adjustments to any tooling inputs to correctly determine important metal forming parameters. The sheet metal forming simulation found that the springs were inadequate and that the proposed hole shape needed adjusting. It was possible to redesign the spring size, strength and quantity to match the forming simulation results and change the locator shape to suit the newinner hole shape. These changes were made during tool design phase, before the tool was built,saving large amounts of time and cost on the shop floor.

About StampingSimulation.com

StampingSimulation.com is a world wide team of specialist stamping simulation and sheet metal stamping engineers. With resources across three continents (North America, Europe and Australisia) we are uniquely placed to offer fast turn around times on all structural simulation, hydro forming simulations, ANSYS simulations and sheet metal stamping simulations.
Using the power of the AutoForm suite of software the StampingSimulation.com team canhelp tool and die manufacturers and designers with spring back, forming forces and helpdevelop blank shapes accurately.

The capabilities of sheet metal stamping simulation Part 2

We would like to explore the capabilities of forming simulation, as well as provide some descriptions of how the technology works. So here is a quick summary of a few typical applications of metal forming simulation technology. Being aware that metal forming simulation is actually a specific application of the Finite Element Method (FEM also known as FEA) may assist your understanding.

Splitting, thinning and wrinkling checks.

It goes without saying that the primary purpose of the forming simulation step is to check how the material behaves prior to machining of any tool steel.

The results produced in the forming simulation step illustrate very clearly the calculated areas of material yielding (splitting), amounts of necking (thinning or changes in thickness) and areas of material compression (wrinkles and folds). The Forming Limit Diagram (FLD) is key to analyzing this data as it plots each element’s strain (in major and minor axis) on a graph and compares it to the material’s limits to determine if any of these defects will be present. With this information in hand, countermeasures and adjustments are made to the die face design and then the forming
simulation is re-run, until each defect is removed or an acceptable result is achieved.

Die face data export.

After all the problems have been ironed out of the draw process and an acceptable “draw panel” has been produced in the virtual environment, the die face data that was used in the simulation can be exported as CAD (IGES, STL or any other format) for use when designing a complete tool and creating NC cutter paths. Basically, the die face data can be used in any other CAD/CAM package for use in an actual tool build.

Blank shape development.

There are many cases where it is not possible to simply blank the material to the shape estimated in the first step (blank shape estimate), form it and end up with a perfect result. If the part needs to be drawn then wiped down, for example, then some trimming occurs after drawing and needs to be developed so that after the wipe-down, the trim length is correct. With the sheet metal forming simulation software, this can all be done in a virtual environment. After the draw simulation step is complete, the “virtual draw panel” can be virtually “laser trimmed”, then wiped or flanged down. The
virtual laser trim shape can then be adjusted until the final trim line is developed to the correct shape. This means when the time comes to develop an actual trim die, a very accurate starting point is available, which rarely needs further adjustment, meaning the time and cost to build a real trim die, is drastically reduced.

About StampingSimulation.com

StampingSimulation.com is a world wide team of specialist forming simulation and sheet metal forming engineers. With resources across three continents (North America, Europe and Australasia) we are uniquely placed to offer fast turn around times on all structural simulation, hydro forming simulations, ANSYS simulations and sheet metal forming simulations.

About AutoForm
AutoForm offers software solutions for the die-making and sheet metal forming industries, and is recognized by the Top 20 automobile producers and their customers, as the number one provider of software for product formability, die face design and virtual tryouts to the global automotive industry. The use of AutoForm software improves
reliability in planning, reduces the number of die tryouts and tryout time, and results in higher quality part and tool designs that can be produced with maximum confidence. In addition, press downtime and reject rates in production are substantially reduced.

The capabilities of sheet metal stamping simulation Part 1

We would like to explore the capabilities of forming simulation, as well as provide some descriptions of how the technology works. So here is a quick summary of a few typical applications of metal forming simulation technology. Being aware that metal forming simulation is actually a specific application of the Finite Element Method (FEM also known as FEA) may assist your understanding.

Material yield (utilization) calculations and blank shape estimates.

Using a 3D CAD model of the final part, the data is meshed automatically and then “unrolled” or developed to a flat blank shape. From here, blank nesting and rectangular, trapezoid or any other shape fitting can be applied. The final data produced is a 2D CAD line that can then be used to calculate material utilization across any blank nesting or shape configurations.

Tip angles (or part tipping) and undercut checks.

Using the 3D CAD of the final part shape, the data is automatically tipped into the most suitable pressing angle with the intent to ensure that no elements in the mesh “undercut” the vertical motion of a press machine. This step provides a very quick indication of the possibility of forming the desired part shape in one process or whether there is a need to do it in two or three or more processes. If there are undercutting areas, they are highlighted and decision can be made as to whether the part shape can be changed (to avoid the undercutting) or whether an additional forming process is needed. This step sets the press tip angles and positions the 3D CAD model into the pressing coordinate system, ready for further die face designing.

Forming simulation (or drawing simulation).

At first, die face data has to be created. Using the final part shape that has been tipped into the pressing direction, die face surfaces are created. For example, in a simple crash form, the boundaries of the part simply need to be extended, but in a draw process, addendum and binder surfaces need to be created. With this, the earlier developed blank shape (square, pre-trimmed or otherwise) is used with the newly created die face surfaces to run the simulation.

About StampingSimulation.com

StampingSimulation.com is a world wide team of specialist forming simulation and sheet metal forming engineers. With resources across three continents (North America, Europe and Australasia) we are uniquely placed to offer fast turn around times on all structural simulation, hydro forming simulations, ANSYS simulations and sheet metal forming simulations.

About AutoForm

AutoForm offers software solutions for the die-making and sheet metal forming industries, and is recognized by the Top 20 automobile producers and their customers, as the number one provider of software for product formability, die face design and virtual tryouts to the global automotive industry. The use of AutoForm software improves
reliability in planning, reduces the number of die tryouts and tryout time, and results in higher quality part and tool designs that can be produced with maximum confidence. In addition, press downtime and reject rates in production are substantially reduced.

The Non-Linear Forming Limit Diagram

Let's talk about something that might be new to even those who have seen and used sheet metal stamping simulation many times previously. The Forming Limit Diagram (FLD) is the fundamental tool which is used to judge whether a formed sheet metal part is predicted to fail or pass, when analyzing stamping simulation results. The "standard" FLD assumes a linear strain path, however, strain paths are not always linear in reality.

Non-linear strain paths usually begin occurring in secondary and subsequent forming operations, especially when the material is formed in the reverse or opposite direction. Therefore, if only a linear FLD is considered in a multi stage sheet metal stamping simulation, it is possible that a non-linear failure mode may be overlooked. Therefore, non-linear FLD analysis is required in many cases before a sheet metal stamping simulation can be given a "pass".

StampingSimulation.com uses AutoForm Incremental and non-linear FLD analysis is an integral part of this software. [Image: Standard Linear FLD. Right: Non-linear FLD showing additional failure mode]

About StampingSimulation.com

StampingSimulation.com is a world wide team of specialist forming simulation and sheet metal forming engineers. With resources across three continents (North America, Europe and Australasia) we are uniquely placed to offer fast turn around times on all structural simulation, hydro forming simulations, ANSYS simulations and sheet metal forming simulations.