I always read what Pete Ulintz writes. His September 2018 article in Metalforming Magazine discusses tooling wear when forming stainless and aluminum. A few additional comments from my experience: A) Your metal supplier may be able to provide you coils with the PE/PVC coating already applied. B) You might need to adjust your forming approach. I've worked with parts where the polymer coating was ripped off when going through the [...]
High volume low margin production goes to low cost countries. Equipment and skills available in US transition to higher margin value-added production. Even if manufacturers want to move production back to the US, investment in automation and appropriate talent is needed - and that's not necessarily quick to pull off. Dr. Susan Helper, an econ prof at Case Western, says that Apple can make more products in the US by [...]
NSSMC (Nippon-Sumitomo) and JFE Steel jointly developed a cold formable steel having a minimum tensile strength of 1300MPa. The first production application is the 2019 Mazda 3, where it is used for the front pillar inner, roof rail inner, hinge pillar reinforcement, roof rail reinforcement, side sill inner reinforcement, and the No. 2 crossmember. Mazda expects to use this throughout their lineup. No doubt that joining and repair techniques need [...]
Stainless steel will be used for the SpaceX Starship and Super Heavy rocket booster. Over the spectrum of operating temperatures and conditions encountered, stainless steel has better performance than carbon fiber. From a recent interview with @PopMech, it's apparent that @ElonMusk has more than just a passing awareness of materials and manufacturing. In it, Musk describes how material selection affects stiffness, fracture toughness, and of course cost. He talks about [...]
Electric motor efficiency is improved by using thinner sheets of electrical steels. This is important to meet the needs of hybrid/electric vehicles. But more laminations need to be stamped from this thinner metal to get to the same stator height. An article from steelmaker voestalpine says that at least 60 additional high-precision stamping lines/presses will be needed by 2025 for production of 25 million drive motors with a lamination thickness [...]
More than half will go to automating a 3.52 million ton Gwangyang Steel Mill blast furnace, expanding production capability of their "Giga Steel" and establishing power generation facilities using byproduct gases. Other funds will be devoted to secondary battery materials and upgrading lithium-extracting technologies, with a similar amount going to their energy and infrastructure businesses. Read more about Posco's plan. -Danny Schaeffler, www.EQSgroup.com and www.Learning4M.com
Metal Forming Magazine assembled a collection of articles discussing servo press selection and usage. These articles will take you through the justification process by highlighting their benefits and what these presses offer above and beyond flywheel-driven presses. In addition to the potential for increased throughput, optimizing forming velocity during the press stroke helps reduce heat build-up, lube burn-off, and minimize die wear. Read more about servo presses at MetalForming Magazine. -Danny [...]
Every few months, we at EQS and 4M send out a newsletter covering info related to the sheet metal forming industries. Topics in a recent newsletter included material selection strategies at automakers, friction stir welding, servo presses, Tesla build quality, and laser blanking. If you want to get on the distribution list, please sign up on the EQS website. Here's a reprint of that newsletter from the 4th quarter of [...]
SSAB has a good post on why tensile test elongation is not the best way to assess formability of AHSS steel. It has to do with averaging deformation over a large gauge length. Coincidentally, I've written about this in an article to be published in the February 2019 issue of MetalForming Magazine. Read more from SSAB in their article, The Forming Myth -Danny Schaeffler, www.EQSgroup.com and www.Learning4M.com
Nice article about the use of sensors in stamping and relation to Industry 4.0. If you don't think you can justify sensors, my recommendation is to track coil-by-coil performance [bad AND good] to see effect of metal props. You might find that success is a function of more than just YTE or hardness. Sensors like tonnage monitors will help focus corrective actions. https://www.thefabricator.com/article/stamping/r-d-update-industry-4-0-and-the-use-of-sensors-in-sheet-metal-forming -Danny Schaeffler, https://www.EQSgroup.com and https://www.Learning4M.com
