The structure design and performance analysis of the transportation fork in hot stamping production line

摘要

To meet the automotive lightweight trend, hot stamping production technology is becoming a key technology of automotive body manufacturing. In the hot stamping production line, multi-chamber furnace is been adopted for its batch of high heating efficiency. The heated blank is transported by tray-type fork with high speed. However, due to the system inertia, the fork would vibrate. The measured vibration amplitude is 5.65mm with our initial designed fork, which affects the delivery speed seriously. Then, the fork is simplified as a cantilever beam model based on its geometry with different size, and corresponding finite-element (FE) analysis and verification experiments have taken place. A model with the minimum inertial vibration amplitude which is 4.11mm under the working conditions is found. It has the highest stiffness and the smallest swing radius of gyration. This model has good stability at high speed and its vibration amplitude is decreased by 28%.