Journalof

Materials
Processing
Technology
ELSEVIER Journal of MaterialsProcessingTechnology60 (1996) 19-26

Sheet metal forming simulation in industry

A. Makinouchi
The Institute o f Physical and Chemical Research - RIKEN, 2-1 Hirosawa, Wako, 351-01 Japan

Abstract

In order to see actual present situation of finite element simulation system introduced to industry to be utilized at
the stamping tool design section, four different examples are introduced. It is clearly shown from the example that each
industry has its own purpose to the simulation; prediction of wrinkle, prediction of surface deflection, study of tearing
limit condition, determination of blank geometry, prediction of springback, evaluation of sheet thickness and residual
stress, and so on. Present state of simulation systems integrated into CAD is also investigated.

Keywords: Finite Element Simulation System, Sheet Metal Forming, Die Face Design

L Introduction production of car panels is figured out in Fig. 1, starting

World wide efforts have been made to develop finite
element codes to simulate sheet metal forming processes.
These codes are expected to be a powerful tools to indus-
trial users who are working in the tooling design section.
Recent advances of this technological field can be seen ,for
example, in the proceedings papers of international con-
ferences specified to the sheet forming simulation, such as
Symposium on Computer Modeling of Sheet Metal Form-
ing Process (1985) [1], FE Simulation of 3-D Sheet Metal
Forming Processes in Automotive Industry (1991) [2] and
N U M I S H E E ~ 9 3 (1993) [3]. The progress is also clearly
seen in the benchmark tests organized under the specific
purpose to clarify the prediction capability of sheet form-
ing defects; OSU test [4], VDI test [2] and NUMISHEET'93
test [3].
However, in m a n y cases the performance and capabil-
ity of individual code demonstrated in a paper and/or a
benchmark test are the so called ~champion data" and thus
they are not easily achieved in the industrial production
design phase. There always exists a rather large gap be-
tween research phase and industrial phase.
The purpose of the p a p e r is to look at present situation
of finite element simulation system introduced to industry
and to reconsider real requirements from industrial engi-
neers, which m a y give an important information to a re-
searcher for further development of a finite element sys-
tem.
9.. Expected role of finite element simulation
In order to illustrate the expected role of simulation,
let us consider a case of automobile industry. The design
and manufacturing procedure of stamping tools used for
from the concept and style design of a new car, and ending
with the commencement ofpreduction. Absolute time mea-
sure is not indicated in the figure, since it depends very
much on the policy and technological attitude of individual
automobile industry. However, most of industries m a k e
very keen efforts to reduce time for manufacturing new
stamping tool sets and consequently save cost and re-
sources. Expected role of the finite element simulation is
to meet this requirement.
Simulation may be effectively performed at five differ-
ent stages in Fig. 1 for the purpose of helping decision
making in design and modification of parts and tools. The
first simulation is at the production process design stage
<1>. Purpose of the simulation at the stage is to m a k e a
rough estimation whether panels of new designed car can
be formed or not. I f answer is "no', the ear design m u s t be
modified. However, at this stage geometry of body parts
are not fully described in CAD system and no tool data
exists, thus it is not possible to make full simulation.
The precise simulation is achieved at stage <3> to de-
termine number of stamping steps, such as first drawing,
second drawing, trimming, edge bending, and to design
die face geometry used at each stamping step. At this stage
die face geometry is modeled by CAD surface description
and thus modification of die face data is made rather eas-
ily according to the simulation results on same CAD sys-
tem. The performance of integrated CAD and simulation
system is crucial for obtaining well optimized stamping
steps and die face shape in very limited time allocated to
the production tool design.
The simulation is also required at the tryout stage <4>,
to find a solution to avoid the forming defects appeared
during tryout.
In order to study the mechanism of origination and

0924-0136/96/$15.00 © 1996 ElsevierScienceS.A. All rightsreserved

Pl10924-0 136 (96) 02303-5
20 A. Makinouchi /Journal of Materials Processing Technology 60 (1996) 19-26
Starting of
design TIME
Car [Production I
design[processdesign[
Prot
tool design X ~ol desp
b W
¥
A oductiootoo,
,
~a ~ ~ ~ W manufacturing
Protot~rpe~or\~ t y m,
Simulation <1> <2> <3>
Fig. 1 Design and manufacturing process of stamping tools
in automobile industry. - PRESENT
propagation of defects, the systematic series of simula-
tion can be t a k e n place after production stated <5 >, and
obtained information is efficiently made use of in the next
new model.
Assume that the finite element simulation is powerful
enough to predict all the forming defects and provide opti-
m u m stamping tools and conditions, we may completely
eliminate the prototype tools from the design and manu-
facturing procedure, and we also reduce number of trial
and modification operations. Thus the process might be
shorten dramatically as is illustrated in Fig. 2. This is the
most ideal attitude of the finite element simulation sys-
tem in sheet metal forming industry.
3. Existing simulation code
A powerful finite element code is primary important to
construct a simulation system. Finite element codes par-
ticipated to the benchmark test of NUMISHEET°93 [3] are
listed in Table 1. Three different benchmark problems are
proposed by the organizer; square cup deep drawing (in-
tending to prediction of wrinkling and splitting for rather
simple geometry), front fender s t a m p i n g (prediction of
wrivkllr~g and splitting for very complex tool geometry),
and 2-D draw bending (prediction of springback). The prob-
lems participated by each code are marked in the table.
Finite element codes developed specifically for sheet
metal forming simulation may be classified by its formu-
lation and time integration algorithm as classified in Table
1. There are m a n y investigations for comparison between
classified methods, and advantage and drawback of each
method are pointed out [5-7]. I f we m a k e a very rough con-
ceptual evaluation of each method, following remarks may
be stated.
Rigid-plastic or rigid-viscoplastic finite element method
Formulation and implementation is rather simple, and
fast calculation is achieved. Due to lack of the elastic re-
gion in material model, it is not possible to calculate ini-
Starting of Starting of Startingof
production design TIME production
Production
processdesign
modification
I t~asti~[Machining [ l Trialin
r~ ~]& assembl[y] [production
Trisl
<4> <5> Simulation<i> <2>
Fig. 2 Design and manufacturing process of stamping
tools. - Future
tial sheet deformation on the die face due to weight and
the spring back afterforming.
Elasto-plastic finite element method - static implicit ap-
proach
Since sheet stamping process is not really impact pro-
cess, it may be appropriate to assume the quasistatic equi.
librium through the process. The static implicit time inte-
gration scheme satisfy this requirement, since the equilib-
rium condition is hold at each time integration step. How-
ever, difficulty exists to overcome convergence problem,
which is mainly due to continuous change of contact and
friction state between tool and sheet during iteration.
Static explicit approach
In order to avoid the convergence problem, tangent
stiffness matrix equation is solved without iteration at each
time integration step with limiting the step size to very
small value by the r-minimum procedure. Large number
of incremental steps are necessary to complete the entire
forming process without having accumulation of error due
to neglecting higher order terms in time integration.
Dynamic explicit approach
Dynamic equilibrium equation is the bases of this for-
mulation. It is big advantage that the stiffness matrix is
not necessary to be constructed and solved, so that the so-
lution of one time step can be obtained much faster t h a n
the static approach. Most important point is the dynamic
nature of this approach. In order to obtain stable solution
in this time integration scheme, incremental time must be
limited to such value that a dilatation wave does not cross
through any element, and thus 10 .6 secouds is the most
standard time step size. In order to reduce calculation time,
simulation are often performed under accelerated tools
peed (in m a n y cases 100 times faster punch speed com-
pared to actual speed is applied), sometimes leading to
unrealistic results.
 .4. Makinouchi /Journal of Materials Processing Technology 60 (1996) 19-26 21

RJ ; i d - ( v i a c o ) - p l a s t i c
Benchmark Problems
Program name Organization Country Square Front 2D
Cup Fender Draw
SHEET-3 Ohio State Univ. 'U.S.A. O O
MFP2D Univ. of Catalunya Spain O
MFP3D Univ. of Catalunya !Spain O
FORMSYS-SHEET KAIST Korea O O
CASHE KAIST Korea O

Elasto-plastic
Static-implicit
Benchmark Problems
Program name Organization Country Square Front 2D
Cup Fender Draw
MTLFRM Ford Motor U.S.A. O O
Dieka Univ. of Twente The Netherlands O
LAGAMINE Univ. of Liege Belgium O
CALEMBOUR Ecole Central Paris France O
ABAQUS H. K. S. Inc. U.S.A. O 0
FLECHE Univ. Tech. Compiegne France O
NIKE3D Livermore Software U.S.A. O
AUTOFORM ETH Zwrich Switzerland O
Ford Motor U.S.A. 0
INDEED INPRO Germany 0
PROFIL Inst. National Sci. France 0
MARC Marc Analysis U.S.A. 0

Static-explicit
Benchmark Problems
Program name Organization Country Square Front 2D
Cup Fender Draw
ROBUST Osaka Univ. Japan O O
ITAS-3D RIKEN Inst. Japan O O O
ITAS-2D RIKEN Inst. JaPan O

D y n a m i c explicit
Benchmark Problems
Program name Organization Country Square Front 2D
Cup Fender Draw
LS-DYNA3D Livermore Software U.S.A. O O O
PAM-Stamp E. S. I. France O O
RADIOSS MECALOG France O O O
ABAQUS/Explicit H. K. S. Inc. U.S.A. O O
Univ. Tech. Compiegne France O
CES-3D Univ. of Catalunya Spain O

Table. 1 List of finite element codes participated to NUMISHEET'93 benchmark test.

22 .4. Makmouchi / Journal of Materials ProcessingTechnology60 (1996) 19-26

4. Industrial example Front fender

To see the present situation of finite element simula- The first example of application of this system is optimi-
tion system in industries four different examples are in- zation of die face geometry for the blank-holding opera-
troduced. All the information of following examples are tion of the front fender panel at the production tool design
provided from industrial engineers who h a v e been in stage <3> in Fig. 1. Main aim is to find optimum die face
change of constructing the system in their section and are geometry which avoid the wrinkle formation while keep-
leading their simulation group. ing size of the blank sheet as small as possible. Fig. 3 shows
shape of simulated front fender, in which the effect of height
4.1 Automobile panel forming in N I S S A N Motor H at A-A section is examined. The increase of H leads to
increase of the blank size, on the contrary the decrease of
System structure H gives an uneven height of the die face leading to the
wrinkle formation. A result obtained using opthnized die
The die design section of NISSAN Motor Co. has an in- face is illustrated in Fig. 4a. The wrinkle formed at the
house CAD system, which is intensively used to design die actual prototype die tryout (Fig. 4b) is diminished in the
face geometry based on the geometrical data of parts de- simulated model.
scribed by curved surfaces. ITAS-3D finite element code is
integrated to this CAD system. The generation of tool
meshes, is in general, one of key issue which exerts large
influence upon the quality of simulation and it takes very
long time to accomplish a sufficiently good mesh for die,
punch and blankholder. One advantage of ITAS-3D is the
tool data description. ITAS-3D uses "point data" approach,
in which three dimensional tool surface is defined by a col-
lection of points distributed regularly in the x-y coordinate
plane and is generated easily without help of operator. An
in-house m e s h generator integrated into this CAD system
can efficiently produce a set of tool data within one day. By
using input p a r a m e t e r s t a k e n from the material data base
and the drawbead force data base, modeling process is
rather automated.

J f

Fig. 4 Sheet geometry after blank holding operation.

(a) Actual tryout result by prototype tool.
(b) Simulation result by optimized tool.

Trunk lid

The trunk lid outer panel is often subjected to the sur-

face deflection which spoils appearance of a car. The sur-
S E C A-A face defection of this panel is mainly formed near the cor-
ner as is illustrated in Fig. 5. This defect is supposed to be
Fig. 3 Die face shape of front fender. originated from the non uniform contact of the sheet to the
 A. Makinouchi /Journal of Materials ProcessingTechnology60 (1996) 19-26 23

Surface deflection
Fig. 5 Trunk lid outer panel. Fig. 6 Distance between punch and sheet.

Model 1 Model 2 Model 3

Fig. 7 Distribution of distance between punch and sheet, obtained by simulation under different tool geometry.

have different combination of height B and C in Fig. 5. It

is clearly shown that the even distribution of distance at
the corner is achieved in the model 3. This e~Amlnation is
performed at tool design stage <3> and the production tool
employing model 3 geometry is produced. Satisfactory panel
quality is obtained at the tryout stage as is shown in Fig. 8.

4.2 Automobile panel forming in MAZDA Motor

Simulation system

MAZDA Motor Co. uses an in-house CAD system, and

PAM-STAMP finite element software is integrated into the
system. They made large efforts to develop an efficient
automatic mesh generator for creating tool mesh directly
on CAD surface. The new mesh generator is powerful
enough to generate large tool mesh data such as the front
fender within two days. This system is used in design and
manufacturing stages <3> and <5> of Fig. 1. Among plenty
of simulation cases two examples are shown in the follow-
ing section which is performed in stage <5> intending to
obtain information utilized in the next model design.
Fig. 8 Produced panel and simulated panel using
optimized tool. Side frame outer panel

punch face in the drawing process. The distance between The side frame outer panel illustrated in Fig. 9 is very
punch surface and sheet, as is illustrated in Fig. 6, is ex- large parts which is subjected to many different forming
Amined at several foaming steps. Fig. 7 shows comparison defects. MAZDA has used the simulation system to find
of three simulation results obtained using three tools which proper solution for minimizing wrinkling and avoiding tear-
24 .4. Makinouchl / Journal o f Materials Processing Technology 60 (1996) 19-26

Fig. 9 Side frame outer panel.

Fig. I i Simulation model for prediction of tearing.

High "

LOW ,

, , , !

High Small* • Large

b Blank edge radius R
Fig. 10 Simulation result of side frame outer panel.
(a) Result used actual production tool. Formability
(b) Result used optimize tool. Severe
b
Lug. Dynamic-explicit code PAM-STAMP has advantage
that large number of element can be utilized in modeling a
sheet blank. But also such disadvantage exists that ap-
propriate punch speed and modeling conditions have to be
found to obtain reasonable results within reasonable cal- /Formabili~ [ • Teared laanel at tryout
culation time.
The first example is wrinkle simulation. The wrinkle Low °rEma~1 tY I : ~ a a ~ n ~ a ~ l ~ ~ ou t
was formed rather early stage of stamping as is shown in
the simulated panel in Fig. 10a. Several modified tool was
tested by simulation and an optimized tool shape was found , , 1 i
Small, , Large
(Fig. 10b), which was utilized in the next new car model. Blank edge radius R
The second example is tearing problem. The tearing at Fig. 12 Limit line evaluating tearing.
the bottom of center pillar in Fig. 9 is always annoying (a) Tearing limit determined by simulation.
problem which occurs in most of new models and have to (b) Tearing limit of actual panel.
be removed during the tryout with large effort. In order to
find a general scheme to avoid this defect, rather simple The result says that the limited height is linearly increases
stretch flanging simulation model, Fig. 11, was introduced, with the blank edge radius R. Based on this information
In the simulation effect of the edge radius R of sheet blank actual tryout data of several different old panel was plot-
was exAmlned with using a set of tools. Simulation results ted on the same graph, and a clear relationship was ob-
are plotted in Fig. 12a whre the limited height is deter- tained as shown in Fig. 12b. This limit line is used as the
mined by the forming limit diagram of the sheet material. design standard for a new car model.
 A. Makinouchi /Journal of Materials Processing Technology 60 (1996) 19-26 25

Realproduct(axleease)

~ F E M simulation result

Fig. 13 Modeling of axle case forming by two

dimensional code AXLE2D.

Simulation Real axlecase

Fig. 16 Simulated geometry of frame side member
in forming process.
4.3 Forming of frame and member in Press Kogyo
1.58ram ~ 1 System structure
Press Kogyo Co. utilizes three finite element codes,
. ,o AXLE2D, ITAS-2D and ITAS-3D, which are integrated into
pre and post processor IDEAS. Each code is used at differ-
ent design stage. AXLE2D is special purpose program de-
Comparisonon mostdecreasethickness section veloped by the company Airnlrlgto be used only for design
of axle case.
Fig. 14 Comparison of cress sectional geometry of formed
axle case between simulation and experiment. Axle case
Three dimensional forming process of axle case is mod-
eled by a very simplified manner, that is, the plane stress
45o -L74- 2D finite element method, as is shown in Fig. 13. By using
this code, AXLE2D, simulation model is generated quickly,
and using this model the mA~tiraum strain at stretch
flanged part is roughly evaluated and the sheet blank ge-
ometry is determined automatically before forming tools
are designed. This is a big advantage to have a special
purpose code, and simulation results are feedbacked to the
axle case design. After tools are designed, more precise
-1 Re~ evaluation of quality of formed axle case, such as thick-
\ ness distribution of the wall, amount of the side wall curl
\ and springback, Fig. 14, are performed by ITAS-3D.
,I
0 1000 20O0 Frame side member of tracks
Distance from front [ram] Since the frame side member is not symmetric along the
longitudinal direction, entire structure is often twisted due
Fig. 15 Distribution of twisting angle along longitudinal to the springback after forming. So that evaluation of
direction of frame side member. amount of twisting is one of most important issue to de-
26 .4. Makinouchi / Journal of Materials Processing Technology 60 (1996) 19-26
sign tools. ITAS-3D is used at stage <3> for this purpose,
providing sufficiently accurate twisted shape as shown in
Fig. 15. Other defects such as wrinkle and springback of
side wall are also predicted by this simulation. Fig. 16 dem-
onstrates process of wrinkle formation due to shrink flang-
ing deformation, which gives significant effect to side wall
shape of formed frame.
4.4 Forming of tire disk wheel in Central Motor Wheel
System structure
CADCEUS is used to design tire disk wheel and the geo-
metrical data is transmit to pre and post processor KSWAD.
ITAS-2D finite element is incorporated to KSWAD for the
purpose of two dimensional axisymmetric section analysis
of the tire disk wheel forming process.
Disk wheel
This special purpose system is used for design of the
multiple forming stages and the tool shapes for automo-
bile disk wheels. The main ahn of the simulation is to pre-
dict thickness changes of the sheet at each stage, and evalu-
ate the springback geometry and the residual stress dis-
tribution at the finial forming stage. The cross-sectional
shape of the sheet at three successive forming stages ob-
tained by simulation is shownin Fig. 17. The state of stress
and strain in the sheet is transformed from previous form-
ing stage to the next stage, and thus entire forming his-
tory is completely simulated to evaluate final formed state
very precisely Fig. 18. This system is intensively used at
the design section <3> of the company.
First stage Second stage Third stage
After springback After springback After springback
i E.Onate, R.H.Wagoner, 1993.
Fig. 17 S i m u l a t e d cross-sectional s h a p e of t i r e disk
w h e e l in successive f o r m i n g stages
5. D i s c u s s i o n
The examples shown here tell us that each industry
has its own purpose to use simulation system; such as pre-
diction of wrinkle, prediction of surface deflection, study
of tearing limit condition, determination of blank geom-
etry, prediction of springback, evaluation of sheet thick-
ness and residual stress, and so on. It is rather amazing
that simulation can meet such variety of requirements
Fig.18 S h e e t t h i c k n e s s a n d r e s i d u a l stress a t final
forming stage
asked from industrial engineers. However, it is also true
that ability of finite element codes is still very limited, so
that if a user wants to obtain really useful information
within reasonable time and cost, he/she has to limit the
purpose of simulation to one or two specified items and
optimize the code and model for this purpose. This situa-
tion means that a code must be customized under guid-
ance of industrial engineers to achieve real efficiency.
Acknowledgment
The author would like to thank to Mr. H.Sunaga of
Nissan Motor Co., Mr. T.Ogawa of Mazda Motor Co., Mr.
I~Kazama of Press Kogyo Co. and Mr. T.Kakita of Central
Motor Wheel Co. for their kind cooperation for preparing
this paper. Most of the information about the shnulation
system are kindly provided from them.
References
[1] Computer modehng of sheet metal forming process;
edited by N.-M.Wang and S.C.Tang, The Metallurgi-
cal Society inc., 1985.
[2] FE-simulation of 3-D sheet metal forming process in
automotive industry, VDI Verlag, 1991.
[3] NUMISHEET93 - 2nd international conference on
numerical simulation of 3-D sheet metal forming
process, edited by &Makinouchi, E.Nakamachi,
[4] J.I~Lee, R.H.Wagoner and E.Nakamachi; "A bench-
mark test for sheet forming analysis", Report ERC/
NSM-S-90-22 Ohio State University, 1990.
[5] E.Onate et al, NUMISTAMP: A research project for
assessment of finite element models for stamping
processes, NUMISHEET'93, p19, 1993.
[6] D.Y.Yang et al; Comparative investigation into
imphcit, explicit, and iterative/exphcit schemes for
simulation of sheet metal forming process,
NUMISHEET'93, p35, 1993.
[7] J.C.Gelin et al; Quasi-static implicit and transient
explicit analyses of sheet metal forming using a CO
three node shell element, NUMISHEET'93, p53, 1993.