An optimization procedure for the friction stir welding FEM model of corner fillet joints

Friction stir welding (FSW) is an energy efficient and environmentally "friendly" (no fumes, noise, or sparks) welding process, during which the sheets are welded together in a solid-state joining process. FSW is mature for simple configurations but a significant lack of knowledge is found when dealing with different designs such as T-sections, box sections and corner welds. Although the latter joint morphology has traditionally been considered unfeasible for the process, it seems to have a great potential to be used also for T-joint configurations, a recurrent design pattern in transport applications. A specific tool has been developed and a set of experimental welds has been produced with…

Reshaping End-of-Life components by sheet hydroforming: An experimental and numerical analysis

In this study, a numerical/experimental analysis is proposed to investigate the possibility of reshaping sheet metal-based End-of-Life (EoL) components using sheet Hydroforming (SHF). Returned EoL components are challenging to be reformed, they are usually characterised by high heterogeneity as there are localised thinning areas (caused by the original forming processes), and the overall formability is reduced with respect to the original flat sheet material. The reshaping route was replicated: a deep drawing process was adopted to impart a square feature; subsequently, SHF was performed. The capability of remove the deep drawn feature was analysed with varying Blank-holder force, oil press…

An Intelligent Tool to Predict Fracture in Sheet Metal Forming Operations

One of the main issues in sheet metal forming operations design is the determination of formability limits in order to prevent necking and fracture. In fact, the ability to predict fracture represents a powerful tool to improve the production quality in mechanical industry. Many researchers investigated the problem here addressed, mainly studying forming limit diagrams (FLD) or developing fracture criteria which are able to foresee fracture defects for different processes. In this paper, the author present some early results of a research project focused on the application of artificial intelligence (AI) for ductile fracture prediction in sheet metal forming operations. The main advantage o…

Environmental costs of single point incremental forming

A methodology for the environmental comparison of metal shaping technologies: an in-depth analysis on recycling related issues

The reduction of CO2 emissions is an urgent objective to pursue. The scientific and the industrial world have gathered such challenge, starting to find out energy- and resource-efficient manufacturing strategies. From the literature review, in the domain of environmental impact analysis of manufacturing processes, two relevant knowledge gaps can be spotted: (1) the metal forming processes (and, in particular, the bulk forming processes) are still not well documented, and (2) there is a lack of systematic and comparative studies on energy and material flows enabling the identification of environmentally-friendly manufacturing design strategies. This research offers a contribution to a better…

A sensitivity analysis on environmental sustainability in sheet metal forming

An experimental campaign to investigate sustainability issues in Single Point Incremental Forming processes

Sustainability issues are crucial topics in manufacturing and the environmental burdens reduction for processes is highly requested. In particular, the environmental sustainability evaluation for sheet metal forming processes is an widely investigated topic since there is still a lack of knowledge on modeling issues. The main tasks are related to a more efficient materials use and to energy savings. Moreover, forming technologies environmental impacts are essentially process-dependent. A deep analysis of the cause-effect linkages (between process and material parameters and energy consumption, for instance), within each process, would be necessary to properly model environmental impacts and…

SCELTA E NECESSITÀ. LA RESPONSABILITÀ UMANA NELLE STORIE DI ERODOTO

Optimization of the sheet hydroforming process parameters to improve the quality of reshaped EoL components

Abstract. The reshaping of End-of-Life (EoL) components by means of sheet metal forming process has been considered largely attractive, even from the social and economic point of view. At the same time, EoL parts can be often characterized by non-uniform thicknesses or alternation of work-hardened/undeformed zones as the results of the manufacturing process. Such heterogeneity can hinder a proper reshaping of the EoL part and residual marks on the re-formed blanks can be still present at the end of the reshaping step. In a previous analysis, the authors evaluated the effectiveness of reshaping a blank with a deep drawn feature by means of the Sheet Hydroforming (SHF) process: it was demonst…