Module 4

Bending and Drawing

Contents
• Theory of bending
• Spring back effect
• Types of bending dies
• Theory of drawing
• Metal flow in drawing and bending
• Drawing force and Blank holding force
• Defects in drawing and bending
• Construction of bending and drawing dies
outer surface of the bent sheet is called minimum bend radius. It is usually
given in terms of the sheet thickness, t.
The amount of spring back can be defined either by a non-dimensional
spring back factor Ks , which is the ratio between the final bending angle
and the loading bending angle
• Springback could be influenced by many variables such as material
properties (yield strength, Young's modulus, strain hardening exponent,
strength coefficient), sheet metal geometry (thickness, width), tooling
dimensions (punch radius, die radius, die opening) and process parameters
(punch travel, punch velocity).
• Springback is a formidable problem that affects the quality of the bent part
and may cause problems in the assembly. It cannot be completely
eliminated, so at least it must be compensated.
• In bending practice, springback is usually compensated by over bending the
part for a small radius of curvature than desired so that after springback,
the part has the required radius.
• Another method is to coin the bent area by subjecting it to high localized
compressive stresses, between the tip of the punch and the die surface,
known as bottoming the punch. Because springback decreases as yield
stress decreases, all other parameters being the same, bending may also be
carried out at elevated temperatures to reduce springback.
Types of bending dies
Theory of drawing
•  It is a process of cold forming a flat blank of sheet metal into a hollow
vessel without much wrinkling, trimming, or fracturing.
• The process involves forcing the sheet metal blank into a die cavity with a
punch. The punch exerts sufficient force and the metal is drawn over the
edge of the die opening and into the die, In forming a cup, however, the
metal goes completely into the die.
•  The metal being drawn must possess a combination of ductility and
strength so that it does not rupture in the critical area (where the metal
blends from the punch face to the vertical portion of the punch). The metal
in this area is subjected to stress that occurs when the metal is pulled from
the flat blank into the die.
Drawing force
Blank Holding force
• The purpose of blank holding is to suppress wrinkling and
puckering, and to control the flow of the work metal into the die.
• When the draw progress, compressive force developed in the blank
causing a reduction in the blank diameter and thickening of the
blank. Correspondingly, the blank holder pressure increases as the
draw progress due to increase in thickness.
• Normally blank holding pressure is assumed to be one third of
maximum force. It is clear that the blank holder force must be
sufficient large to prevent excessive wrinkling but not too large to
cause tearing.

– to prevent the appearance of wrinkles by sufficiently large intensity in

the first phase,
– to compensate for the appearance of wrinkles and tendency to sheet
metal thickness increase by sufficient intensity in the last phase.
Defects
• Wrinkles (either minor or severe)
• Splits (and risk of splits)
• Spring back (or final part deviation from nominal)
• Incorrect process or number of forming tools
• Incorrect blank shape and/or size
• Excessive thinning/thickening of the sheet during forming

Wrinkles:
• Generally, if experiencing wrinkles during production, this could mean the
wrong process was chosen to manufacture the part or a key process
parameter (such as binder force) could be incorrect. Wrinkles occur when
the sheet metal stamping process produces compressive strains that “push”
material together, causing the material to overlap each other in the worst
case. A thicker material resists the compressive forces more so than a
thinner material – speaking broadly – and thus a thin material will wrinkle
more easily.
• Wrinkles can often be solved by stretching or drawing material, instead of
forming or “crushing” without any pads/binders restraining the flat sheet.
However, for more complex 3D shapes, in addition to pads/binders, draw
beads may be required to initiate maximum stretch in the material and
prevent it from wrinkling.
• The negative impact of removing wrinkles can be use of more material than
just the net part shape, as flat material is needed to clamp and stretch the
wrinkles out, which later is cut off as scrap. However, the cost of scrap may
be insignificant compared to a serious process defect which may lead to
rejected parts in production.
Splits:
• These occur when strains cause the material to thin beyond the material’s
safe limits. Although sheet metal has work-hardening (or more correctly,
work-strengthening) characteristics that increase the material’s formability
as strains increase, there is a finite limit at which splitting will occur. This
also depends on the direction of strains in the sheet metal product being
formed.
The beginning of a split may be observed as a localized yield (or necking)
before a full split is opened up. This occurs because the material has yielded
and then stretched past it’s ultimate tensile strength, and then gone a little
further along the stress-strain curve.
• Using the FLD (forming limit diagram) is key to solving splitting issues, and
all splitting defects that are predicted in incremental simulation software
are based on FLD criteria, and subsequent FLC (forming limit curve) for each
given material.
Solving a splitting issue requires careful consideration of material type,
material thickness, minimum form radius, form depth, number of forming
stages, blank shape/size. Stamping simulation software is often needed to cost
effectively analyze and solve a splitting problem, to avoid cost prohibitive trial
and error on the shop floor.
Spring back
• A spring back defect may occur when an unexpected shape change takes
place after forming or stamping is completed. The final part dimensional
shape does not match the desired nominal shape and falls outside of
required tolerances.
• Spring back defects are caused by the elastic region of the given material’s
stress-strain curve, whereby the material is strained but then relaxes
according its elastic characteristics. High strength materials typically exhibit
severe spring back problems usually caused by a much smaller difference
between Yield Strength and Tensile Strength, compared to mild or low
strength steels.
• To solve a spring back defect, multiple strategies may be required. The most
common method is to “over bend” or “compensate” the forming tool
shape to account for the spring back defect. However, this method alone
may not be successful and sometimes more effective methods are required,
such as inducing positive stretching to increase part strength such that the
product becomes stiffer and stronger than the original material, which leads
to a reduction in spring back. Either way, advanced simulation software is
needed to compute and compensate complex 3D geometries to cost
effectively solve a spring back defect.
 Ironing:
• Iron consists principally in reducing the wall thickness of the cup by
restricting the clearance between the punch and the die to a value less than
the blank thickness. The punch load is of primary importance in ironing
because it determines the tension in the cup walls and hence the maximum
reduction possible for a given punch load. A theoretical study of ironing has
been reported in reference [21] and an experimental investigation was
carried out using hemispherical headed punches for different condition of
wall thinning, die profile and lubrication
Tearing
• It might take place at the inner region of the annular part of the rim near
the die profile if the holding down pressure is high which stops the blank
from sliding and bending over the die profile radius, or it might take place in
the maximum thinning region in the clearance region near the punch profile
which is subjected to bending and stretching
Orange peeling
• It occurs at the outer surface of the cup when the grain size of its material is
large it can be avoided by reducing the grain size prior to drawing either by
heat treatment or by adding grain refining the grains by the addition of the
appropriate refiners.
Earing
• It is caused by the planar anisotropy which is due to variation in the
mechanical behavior of the sheet from its plane to any other direction
inclined or perpendicular to it they are normally even in number 2 or 4 or 6.
The worst number is 8 in case of brass blank. They appear on the upper part
of drawn cup and is treated by trimming. The photograph of Figure 10
clearly shows the ears on the steel specimen.
 Problems occurred in deep drawing
• Metal Fracture: This is one of the most common deep draw problems. Fracturing
of the metal during the draw process can be caused by several issues although the
most common is the clearance between the punch and the die. If this is too small,
too large, or uneven, the material can be cracked during drawing.
• Wrinkles on the Top Edge: This problem is typically due to issues with the blank
holder. If the holder is too tight, unbalanced, or if the blank has a burr on the
holding edge the metal will not flow correctly and create tell-tale wrinkles along the
upper edge.
• Uneven Top Rim: The upper rim of the part should be even and concentric. If not,
the issue is most often attributed to poor punch die alignment. This condition can
cause too much material to be drawn into the die and preventing the formation of an
even top rim.
• Fractures at the Bottom of the Cup: This deep drawn problem is also attributed to
the condition of the blank and blank holder. If the surface is nicked or galled it can
reduce the flow of material into the die, causing cracks to form in the bottom of the
cup.
• Excess Material at the top of the Drawn Shell: This issue develops when the
material is too thick, or the die clearance is too small. Both conditions prevent the
metal from flowing properly during process, resulting in a thicker region at the top.
Problem 3
Problem 2
Problem 1