Effect of Hybrid Metal Matrix Composite Punch on the Deep Drawing Process

Abstract

Composites have many uses in industrial applications. A new trend, the deep drawing process, is to use these composite materials to obtain drawn products with high quality. This study investigated the effect of using a hybrid composite material in the deep drawing process. The main aim was to perform the deep drawing process with cups using the punches of the iron-based hybrid metal matrix composites (MMCs) reinforced with a 3% volume fraction of constant mix (20% ZrO2 and 80% Al2O3) by means of powder metallurgy. After realizing the best hybrid metal matrix composites (MMCs) from a set of five samples that can be used to manufacture a punch nose, the effects of the punch nose radius on the drawing force, forming energy, cup surface roughness, cup thickness, and cup height were evaluated and compared with those of steel. The results indicate that the drawing force decreases as the punch nose radius increases at the zero blank holder angle (BHA). The drawing force of the hybrid MMC’s punch nose is less than that of the steel DIN 1006-02 by 5% as a result of the radius of the punch nose effects. Therefore, the forming energy is decreased when the punch nose radius increases, and the lowest energy is obtained when the punch nose radius is 12 mm and BHA = 4°. The effect of the radius of the punch nose on cup height is the same as the effects on cup thickness, with the same advantages of the hybrid MMCs over DIN 1006-02 steel punch nose materials.