Content tagged with "forming"
Results: 34
Article
February 11, 2010
Waste not, want more
Figure 1 Finding enough room for a group photo is not that big of a deal at General MetalWorks, Mequon, Wis. Elimination of excess raw material inventory and racks of work-in-process hascleared plenty of floor space for such an event. Photos by Lila Aryan Photography.
Waste is not... Read more...
Article
December 15, 2009
Sheet Metal Stamping 101
The author of the "Die Science" column in STAMPING Journal®, Art also has written several other series that appear at www.thefabricator.com, including:
Solving Punch Breakage Problems Die Basics 101 Cutting Tooling Costs
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Article
August 25, 2009
Sheet Metal Stamping 101, Part III
Editor's Note: This series presents an overview of metal stamping. Part I of this series focused on the various careers in the metal stamping industry. Part II discussed stamping materials and equipment;
Part III focuses on dies and cutting and Part IV offers more detail about cutting... Read more...
Article
January 13, 2009
Article
October 14, 2008
Reasons for a press brake upgrade
Figure 1 Adaptive bending, either through laser sensing (pictured here) or internal devices, can help overcome problems with material variation. Photo courtesy of LVD Strippit, Akron, N.Y. The press brake remains one of those last bastions of manual operation. Even the smallest job shops... Read more...
Article
April 15, 2008
Improve HSS part quality before die tryout
This C-pillar reinforcement is manufactured by deep drawing, cutting, and flanging (on left). Die faces for the deep-drawing stage, including the binder, addendum, filled surfaces, and part, can be developed using simulation software (on right). The use of high-strength steels (HSS) and... Read more...
Article
January 9, 2007
Meeting the Standard
Figure 1 Plug-and-play electrics help simplify installation of a roll forming line and allow you to relocate the equipment easily when needed. As a young boy in 1965 I visited a car dealership with my father. I was amazed by some of the incredible innovations that had been added to... Read more...
Article
January 9, 2007
Draw forming
Editor's Note: This is the sixth in a series of seven articles that identify and define the need for a new processing theory for the net shape processes (of which draw forming is one) and that explain the general content and configuration that new theory must have. The first five articles in... Read more...
Article
October 10, 2006
Drawing on new experiences
Press operator Brandie Watkins wipes down a refrigerator door before conducting a quality check. Appliance manufacturing has been due for a makeover for some time. As thousands of U.S. households have rediscovered home entertaining, they have sunk their hard-earned dollars into... Read more...
Article
October 10, 2006
Overcoming deformity by design
One of the goals of any die design should be to create a tool that minimizes the need for highly skilled labor to fabricate and build it. Most if not all tooling should be designed for manufacture on precision CNC or wire electrical discharge machining equipment. One of the goals of any... Read more...
Article
October 10, 2006
Setting up progressive dies - Part II
Editor's Note: This is the second part of a two-part series that discusses proper die setup procedures for progressive dies. Part I discussed press and die cleanness, die alignment, clamping procedures, and preliminary shut height calibration. Part II wraps up the die setup procedure by... Read more...
Article
October 10, 2006
Die Basics 101
Part I provides an introduction to stamping. Part II covers various forming operations. Part III discusses several production methods used to make stamped parts. Part IV and Part V cover common stamping die components. Part VI explains specialty die components. Part VII... Read more...
Article
September 12, 2006
New forms for modern autobody stamping
With the introduction of stronger safety legislation and increased fuel prices, automotive manufacturers must respond with higher car body stiffness for safety and lower body weight for fuel efficiency. The fields of materials development, engineering, and manufacturing are working... Read more...
Article
August 8, 2006
Opening the gate to efficiency
Dotting the rolling landscape on U.S. 127 in Kentucky, just south of Danville, are a half-dozen small gate manufacturers. As is typical in many rural areas throughout the nation, most of these shops are small operations where people have learned how to use their skills to contribute to... Read more...
Article
August 8, 2006
Unique forming short cuts
Figure 1 The use of a 1-to-1 rocker ratio mounted beneath the forming section allows the metal to be formed both up and down, thereby twisting it. Die designers and process engineers often are faced with the challenge of making a part feature that is unique and possibly difficult to... Read more...
Article
May 9, 2006
Draw forming, Part I
Editor's Note: This is the first in a series of seven articles that identify and define the need for a new theory for the net shape processes (of which draw forming is one) and that explain the general content and configuration that new theory must have. Net shape manufacturing is the... Read more...
Article
May 9, 2006
Hot forming: Strong meets light
One of the challenges of meeting the NHTSA requirements for increased part strength while also meeting the CAFE requirements for decreased weight is that cold-stamped UHSS parts have a tendency to spring back. To meet this challenge, Cosma experimented with hot forming complex parts. The... Read more...
Article
April 11, 2006
Guidelines for forming high-strength material
More and more stampers and die builders, both automotive and nonautomotive, are increasing their use of higher-strength materials. Grades of steel such as dual- or triple-phase; high-strength, low-alloy; and bake-hardenable are not uncommon in the automotive and appliance industries. In... Read more...
Article
November 8, 2005
Knockout punch
Punched and tapped parts are stacked on a pallet to be delivered to the press brake area for bending. A finished part (after bending) is shown on the left side of the stacking table for illustration purposes. This is an application destined to stay in the U.S. It's a large,... Read more...
Article
October 11, 2005
Blanking questions have you on the edge?
The condition of a blanked edge can affect the success or failure of downstream stamping operations. Blanking is the part of the stamping process in which the stock material is cut into a designated shape before it goes through subsequent forming processes. Blanking—like... Read more...
Article
March 8, 2005
Advanced lubricants improve high-strength steel forming
Advanced or ultrahigh-strength steel (AHSS or UHSS) use in more than 60 percent of structural automotive stampings has changed the rules when it comes to tooling surface, heat and friction control, robotic automation, and paint pretreatment. With yield strengths now reaching production... Read more...
Article
September 14, 2004
Tube Hydroforming Design Flexibility—Part VI
Editor's Note: This article is Part VI in a series about design flexibility in tube hydroforming. Please read Part I , Part II , Part III , Part IV , and Part V .
Tube hydroforming reshapes a tube from a normally round cross section to a desired shape. The final shape, usually... Read more...
Article
August 14, 2003
Stamping out bad parts
One option for stamping quality control to help fabricators determine shape, strains, and thinning is full-field optical vision technology. Based on the principles of circle grid analysis and photogrammetry—the science of making precise measurements by recording and analyzing... Read more...
Article
April 24, 2003
Hydraulic forming takes a front seat
While designers took these limitations into account and designed the product to be forgiving at the ends of the channels, several factors over the past decade have caused the company to use roll forming less and less. The Move Toward New Technology The first change to influence the... Read more...
Article
March 27, 2003
A different battlefield, the same strategy
The OODA Loop One strategy that has stood the test of time is the Observation, Orientation, Decision, and Action (OODA) Loop. In this process, rivals observe their positions, the environment, and their opponents; orient themselves to the situation; decide on a course of action; and act.... Read more...
Article
March 27, 2003
The basics of roll form tooling design
However, you must understand and apply common practices to the design process, and couple them with a certain degree of "magic" gained from experience. For each new tooling requirement in a roll form design, take the following five steps: Develop a cross-sectional drawing.... Read more...
Article
March 13, 2003
The Age of Cautious Optimism
For most of my life I thought that cautious optimism was an oxymoron -- that people were either optimistic or pessimistic, and anyone who professed to be cautiously optimistic was sitting on the fence, waiting to see which way the wind blew, or, worse yet, really pessimistic and trying to... Read more...
Article
October 10, 2002
Tube Hydroforming Design Flexibility—Part II
Editor's Note: This article is Part II in a series about tube hydroforming design flexibility. Please read Part I , Part III , Part IV , and Part V .
It's difficult to overemphasize the importance of cross section expansion when you're talking about successful and innovative... Read more...
Article
September 12, 2002
Forming exhaust components with an alternative lubricant
In spring 2000 Zeuna Staerker ( www.zeunastaerker.de ), a manufacturer of exhaust system components, took a critical look at the lubricant it was using to mandrel-bend 300-series stainless steel tubing. Although the parts it manufactured, exhaust components for BMW Z3® and X5®... Read more...
Article
May 16, 2002
Using punching and forming plates
Figure 1: A punching and forming plate is similar in function to a hydraulic press. A typical setup is several forming units mounted to a tooling plate. Fabricating tubular components often requires multiple operations such as bending, forming, flattening, piercing, notching,... Read more...
Article
September 18, 2001
Article
May 15, 2001
Know your bending basics—Part I
Editor's Note: This article is Part I of a two-part series discussing bending. Read Part II .
Of all of the operations that typically are done in a stamping die, it seems that achieving and maintaining a 90-degree bend are two of the most difficult.
To accomplish these tasks... Read more...
Article
April 24, 2001
Predicting the outcomes of laser thermal forming
Applying a laser or any other high-density heat source to the surface of a metal sheet for a short time will distort the metal. If this distortion could be predicted, the laser could be directed so that the sheet metal would form the desired shape. This idea opens up many possibilities,... Read more...
Article
January 10, 2001
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