Constrained Groove Pressing(CGP):Die Design,Material Processing and Mechanical Characterization

Constrained groove pressing(CGP)is a severe plastic deformation(SPD)technique used as a strengthening method for sheet metal.In the current work,an optimal/cost-saving design for CGP dies was attained using the stress analysis tool in SolidWorks Simulation Xpress wizard.This study examined low-cost and widely industrially applied aluminium materials,i.e.,pure 1050 Al and 5052 Al alloy.Each material was subjected to three passes of the CGP process using a 150 tons capacity press.For both materials,inter-pass annealing treatment was undertaken before the third pass.The effect of the number of CGP passes on the microstructure and tensile properties was studied after each pass.For CGPed pure 1050 Al with respect to the as-received material,the ultimate tensile strength(UTS),yield strength(YS)and YS/UTS ratio increased with an increasing number of CGP passes until the second pass,while elongation decreased with the number of passes.For CGPed 5052 Al alloy,the UTS and YS increased after the first pass and then decreased after the second pass.Variations in the elongation and YS/UTS ratio of 5052 Al alloy after the CGP process were insignificant.After inter-pass annealing and applying the third CGP pass,the strength of pure 1050 Al decreased,and that of 5052 Al alloy increased,which was attributed to the influence of composition on their structures.The strength-ductility balance decreased with an increasing number of CGP passes in both materials.

Heat Treat ment of Die and Mould Oriented Concurrent Design

Many disadvantages exist in the traditional die design method which belongs to serial pattern. It is well known that heat treatment is highly important to the dies. A new idea of concurrent design for heat treatment process of die and mould was developed in order to overcome the existent shortcomings of heat treatment process. Heat treatment CAD/CAE was integrated with concurrent circumstance and the relevant model was built. These investigations can remarkably improve efficiency, reduce cost and ensure quality of R and D for products.

NUMERICAL DESIGN OF DIE LAND FOR SHAPE EXTRUSION

In the extrusion of shapes with flat faced die,the proper design of die land is of critical importance in avoiding the generations of geometry defects.A methodology for the design of die land,which consists of a simulation adjustment iteration,is proposed.The metal flow in extrusion is simulated by the three dimensional finite element method and the die land is adjusted according to the simulation result.Both the formulae for adjustment of the die land and the criterion for the judgment of proper die land are suggested.The extrusion of an L section shape is chosen as the computational example and the result is compared with the industrial design.

An Integrated Die Casting Design System

Die casting process is one of the prime options for m anufacturing precisely dimensioned, sharply defined metal parts. The design of d ie casting dies comprises several stages and entails a large amount of time. Tra ditionally, the different stages of the die design were not integrated but exist as separate entities. Moreover, recurring modifications or even redesigns are r equired due to the complexity in achieving an accurate initial die design. As a result, die design is usually time-consuming and costly with respect to resourc es. The die casting industry will greatly benefit if proper application software are developed that integrates the different die design stages and allows editin g of die design as and when needed. Hence it is imperative to create an integrat ed die design system that shortens the die design time. This paper presents a research that establishes a prototype of an integrated die design system. It is developed using the commercial SolidWorks CAD system and n amed DiWorks. The aim of building the system on a commercial CAD system is to ut ilise the resources and features of the CAD system to speed up the die design pr ocess. DiWorks consists of six distinct modules: Project Manager, Cavity Insert Builder, Gating System Constructor, Die Base Designer, Ejector System Constructo r and Standard Components Library. Through these six modules, the die designer c an create a complete die casting die beginning from a product part model. It is a user-friendly system that allows both experienced and novice die designers to easily accomplish the task of die design. The practical goal of this research is twofold: to develop a system that integra tes the die design process and at the same time facilitates the editing of d ie design during or after the course of the design process. The research approac h includes (i) parametric design, (ii) feature-based design (iii) system modeli ng and implementation. Parametric design deals with variable dimensions as contr ol parameters, and it is an efficient tool for creating models based on paramete rs. Parametric design not only increases the design efficiency, but also makes t he updates and modifications of existing designs easier and faster, since these can be achieved by changing the parameters of the parametric model. Feature-bas ed design is used to design a product with features that are functionally define d by attributes and are geometrically represented by a set of parameters. The re sults of this research will aid the automation of the die design process, thus i mproving the efficiency and quality of, and reducing the cost of die design.

USING LOGIC COMPONENTS FOR CONCEPTUAL DIE DESIGN

Logic components are used to support the conceptual design Taking the stamping die structure as the research object,several logic components are defined for the conceptual die construction design A new method logic assembly modeling is presented to satisfy the characteristic of the top down die design process Representing shapes and spatial relations in logic can provide a natural,intuitive method of developing complete computer systems for reasoning about die construction design at the conceptual stage This method can reflect the designer's thought clearly and provide the designer with a test bed for generating alternatives and performing reasoning work at the conceptual die design stage

Size effects on process performance and product quality in progressive microforming of shafted gears revealed by experiment and numerical modeling

As one of the indispensable actuating components in micro-systems,the shafted microgear is in great production demand.Microforming is a manufacturing process to produce microgears to meet the needs.Due to the small geometrical size,there are uncertain process performance and product quality issues in this production process.In this study,the shafted microgears were fabricated in two different scaling factors with four grain sizes using a progressively extrusion-blanking method.To explore the unknown of the process,grain-based modeling was proposed and employed to simulate the entire forming process.The results show that when the grains are large,the anisotropy of single grains has an obvious size effect on the forming behavior and process performance;and the produced geometries and surface quality are worsened;and the deformation load is decreased.Five deformation zones were identified in the microstructures with different hardness and distributions of stress and strain.The simulation by using the proposed model successfully predicted the formation of zones and revealed the inhomogeneous deformation in the forming process.The undesirable geometries of microgears including material unfilling,burr and inclination were observed on the shaft and teeth of gear,and the inclination size is increased obviously with grain size.To avoid the formation of inclination and material unfilling,the punch was redesigned,and a die insert was added to constraint the bottom surface of the gear teeth.The new products had then the better forming quality.