Compensation of Contour Distortion in Stretch-Flanging Metal Sheets

Abstract

Stretch-flanging commonly appears at the concave edge of the panel part. Sheet thickness tends to decrease at the center of flange attributed to the outflow of metal flow, and hence causes a radial shrinking of the material. This shrinking pulls the ends of the flange and makes the adjacent surface overcrown. In this paper the effect of punch profiles on a laboratory scale profile, which assimilates the front fender part adjoining the head light, was investigated for the stretch-flanging process. Both the concave and convex punch profiles were considered. SUS 304 stainless steel sheet of 0.6 mm thick was used as the model metal sheet. DynaForm software was used in simulating the stretch flanging process and followed by experimental verification. The results show that a depression angle of 4.4° and an elevation angle 2.6° can produce lowest crown-contour for the concave and convex punches, respectively. The concave punch also causes less thinning at the flange center which makes it a favorable solution than that of the convex punch.