Investigation of the shear-zone length in fine hydromechanical blanking

Abstract

A new process called fine hydromechanical blanking is proposed in this paper. In contrast to conventional fine blanking, in fine hydromechanical blanking, the V-ring indenter on the guide plate is replaced by a V-ring cavity formed in a workpiece and pressurized by hydraulic pressure. In addition, the counterforce from the blanking ejector is replaced by the hydraulic pressure acting on the ejector chamber. An experimental algorithm for optimization based on the Taguchi method, in which a genetic algorithm is used for searching, is proposed to determine the largest shear-zone length. From the experimental results, it is concluded that the proposed method can achieve the same effects as conventional fine blanking. In addition, an investigation of the effect of the hydraulic pressure in the V-ring cavity and ejector chamber on the shear-zone length was conducted through a series of experiments. The results show that the experiments were greatly affected by the height of the burnished surface and indicate the significance of the hydraulic pressure in the V-ring cavity and ejector chamber.