Deep drawing of cup shell by powder cavity flexible forming technology

摘要

A forming method named powder cavity flexible forming was proposed. It is a forming technology which uses powder medium instead of rigid punch or die to form sheet metals. Cup shells were successfully obtained by this technology. The theoretical calculation equation of forming load was obtained through mechanical analysis and the stress state in cup shells was analyzed by finite element simulation. The results show that powder cavity flexible forming technology can improve the forming limit of sheet metal. Compared with rigid die forming process, the thickness reduction in the punch fillet area significantly decreases and the drawing ratio increases from 1.8 to 2.2. The thinning compressive stress in the bottom of cup shell emerges, which makes the bottom of the cup shell in three-dimensional stress state and the stress in punch fillet region decrease due to powder reaction force, which can effectively inhibit the sever thinning of the sheet and prevent the generation of fracture defects.