Computer-Assisted Design of Sheet Metal Component Formed from Stainless Steel

The development of the product from stainless steel, which is produced for the client in large series, is presented. Technological optimisation was mainly focussed on the design of the deep drawing process in a single operation, which proved to be technologically unstable and therefore unfeasible for the prescribed shape of the product. Testing of prototype products showed unacceptable wrinkling due to the cone-shaped geometry of the workpiece. For this purpose, the research work was oriented towards technological optimisation of forming operations and set-up of proper phase plan in order to eliminate the wrinkling of the material. Testing of several different materials of the same quality was performed to determine the appropriate input parameters used for digital analyses. The analyses were focussed towards the set-up of optimal forming process and appropriate geometry of the corresponding tool, which allowed deep drawing of the workpiece without tearing and/or wrinkling of the material. Performed analyses of the forming process in the digital environment were tested with experiments, which showed a good correlation between the results of both development concepts.