Investigation of deep drawing of lightweight bimetallic Al1050/SS304 sandwich composite cup

Abstract

The effect of geometrical and process parameters on the deep drawing behavior of Aluminium (Al1050)/Steel (SS304) bimetallic axis-symmetric sandwich composite cup is analyzed by using numerical and experimental approaches. The parameters are selected focusing on the elimination of defects like thinning, thickening, tearing, and wrinkling. The explicit deep drawing analysis of the cylindrical cup is carried out by using the finite element software package. The obtained numerical results are utilized for the optimization and identification of significantly influencing parameters using Taguchi and ANOVA techniques and further validated by performing an experimental test. The effectiveness in the utilization of the Al1050/SS304 sandwich composite sheet for deep drawing of cups is proved by comparing it with the deep drawing of the SS304 sheet. The results suggest that the sandwich composite cup under investigation can be drawn successfully with the higher limiting drawing ratio and low thickness variation. The obtained maximum limiting drawing ratio (2.08) showed that the higher formability of the Al1050/SS304 sandwich composite sheet is possible by a sandwich of the SS304 sheet with an Al1050 sheet.