Metal Formability Training

Many sheet metal grades in use today did not exist two decades ago. In addition to different strength/ductility combinations, their forming and processing characteristics are different from mild steels and conventional high strength steels, and are different between steel and aluminum alloys. Understanding these differences and their influence on your forming and joining processing is crucial to maximize quality and profitability.

Recognizing that sheet metal properties impact stamping success, enhanced understanding of these new metals and their characteristics allows for:

  • More robust die and process development, resulting in improved quality and lower scrap.

  • Faster and more effective corrective actions when encountering problems in production.
  • More fruitful discussions with your sheet metal supplier when addressing suspect shipments.

Acknowledging the realities of ongoing work responsibilities and COVID-related travel restrictions and preferences, EQS offers online and in-person training sessions customized to your needs to address the workforce skills development needs relative to sheet metals and their influence on the forming processes used at your manufacturing plant and within your supply base. These sessions teach your employees to understand the material properties, forming technologies, and processes needed to produce consistently reliable components, reduce design, setup, and production costs, and satisfy your supply chain partners.

Our Metal Forming Fundamentals Series has short videos (each about 20 minutes) perfect for employees beginning a new career or as a refresher for anyone! Topics include:

Click on the above links to learn more about these important topics.

We also offer training at your facility that can be customized to your specific needs. Topics we’ve done before include:

  • Tensile Properties of Sheet Metals
  • Using Conventional High Strength Steels and Advanced High Strength Steels in Your Stamping and Assembly Operations
  • Using Aluminum Alloys in Your Stamping and Assembly Operations
  • Using Stainless Steel in Your Stamping and Assembly Operations
  • Fundamentals of Press Hardening Steels and Hot Forming
  • Differences between steel and aluminum in the stamping and assembly plants
  • Formability Terminology, Background, and Theory
  • Forming Limit Curves – their creation and use
  • Fundamentals of Circle Grid Strain Analysis and Thinning Strain Analysis including Interpretation of Results
  • How to Read Mill Test Reports (also known as Mill Certs or Certified Test Reports)

If you need training to solve problems or improve your efficiency, we can help you plan a productive Professional Development program.

In-person or Online

EQS offers online and in-person training sessions customized to your needs to address the workforce skills development needs relative to sheet metals and their influence on the forming processes used at your manufacturing plant and within your supply base.
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SHEET METAL GRADES AND FORMABILITY TRAINING

EXAMPLE AGENDA SHOWN – WE CAN CUSTOMIZE TO YOUR NEEDS

In-Depth and Detailed

  • Introduction
    • New metals and new processes require new understanding which builds on existing knowledge
  • Low Carbon Steel Sheet and Sheet Aluminum Manufacturing Processes
    • Differences between blast furnace and minimills
    • General metallurgy and chemistries
    • Hot rolled and Cold rolled production
    • Coatings for corrosion protection and other reasons: hot dip galvanized, hot dip galvannealed, and electrogalvanized
    • Differences with aluminum production
    • Heat/Coil/Mult Terminology: How Sheet Metal is Produced to Your Ordered Width and Tested
    • How to Read Mill Test Reports (also known as Mill Certs or Certified Test Reports)
  • Sheet Metal Grades
    • Sheet Steel Grades
      • Mild Steel (Low Carbon Steel)
      • Conventional High Strength Steels: HSLA (high strength, low alloy) and BH (bake hardenable)
      • Advanced High Strength Steels

         DP (dual phase)          TRIP (transformation-induced plasticity)      CP (complex phase)

         MS (martensite)         PHS (press hardening steels)                           2nd and 3rd Generation AHSS

         [Multi-day in-depth PHS training also available, quoted separately]

      • SAE / ASTM and EN / DIN terminology
    • Sheet Stainless Steel Grades: Terminology and Chemistry
      • General metallurgy and chemistries of SS2xx / SS3xx / SS4xx
    • Sheet Aluminum Alloys: Terminology and Chemistry
      • Aluminum Association grade and tem per terminology
      • General metallurgy and chemistries
      • Alloys intended for stamping (AA5xxx/AA6xxx/AA7xxx) – similarities and differences
      • Steel vs Aluminum joining differences
  • Formability Terminology and Background
    • Tensile test parameters
    • Other tests like hardness, cup, bulge, hole expansion, metallography, surface, etc.
    • Sheared edge challenges – burrs and slivers
    • Springback
    • Warm forming / hot forming
    • Lubricant effects
    • Tooling effects
  • Differences between the different types of sheet metal and within each type (e.g., 5000/6000 aluminum)
  • Hands-on strain analysis – see our FREE video showing the benefits of doing this analysis!
  • Forming Limit Diagrams, Thickness Reduction Diagrams, Thinning Limit Diagrams
  • Simulation inputs and challenges

  • Motivation
    • Factors contributing to expanding use of press hardening steels (PHS)
  • Typical parts
    • Production examples of PHS parts
  • Metallurgy
    • How the steel chemistry and steel mill processing influence the final part characteristics
  • Coatings
    • Purpose and challenges associated with different sheet steel coatings
  • Heating and Stamping Processes
    • Characteristics associated with the many different hot stamping methods
  • Furnace Equipment
    • Interaction between furnace characteristics and steel grade/coating on process cycle
  • Cycle Time
    • Factors contributing to cycle time and methods to reduce cycle time
  • Tool Steels / Die Materials
    • Tooling requirements to achieve critical cooling rate required to achieve tensile properties
  • Trimming / Piercing
    • Approaches and challenges with multiple methods used in the industry
  • Tailored Properties
    • Controlling strength, ductility, and thickness throughout part before/during/after hot stamping
  • Process Control
    • Differences between cold and hot stamping; process auditing for consistent quality
  • Limitations and Challenges
    • Delayed cracking; Impact of typical processing issues like coating buildup or jammed automation
  • Simulation
    • Differences between simulation of cold stamping and hot stamping
  • Aluminum Warm Forming / Hot Forming
    • Description of different processes

Introductory Overviews

Description:
When designing components, you have thousands of types and grades of materials available. Generally, decisions are based on each material’s strength, mass, corrosion resistance, dent resistance, and mechanical properties. Mechanical properties are a significant factor defining the formability of materials.

The mechanical properties of your sheet metal should be the biggest driver of your material selection. Mechanical properties also define your probability of forming parts with minimum failures and scrap. Your component geometry defines how much your material must bend and stretch to achieve the final form. Mechanical properties define how much your material is able to bend and stretch before failure. Given this, it is important to understand the fundamentals of mechanical properties in material selection, forming simulation, and production.

Think of two identical paper clips. Have a friend unfold one and bend it back and forth a few times before handing them to you. Your two clips have the same chemistry, but their inherent formability is different based on the work that was done prior to you receiving them. In sheet metal stamping, most of the properties that affect formability can be determined in a tensile test: yield strength, tensile strength, elongation, n-value and r-value.

What You Will Learn:
This course introduces the fundamentals of mechanical properties on your forming operation. We also discuss tensile testing and how you can use this test to ensure successful forming simulation and production.

Description:
As the automotive industry continues to look for innovative ways to make vehicles lighter, stronger, safer, and more fuel-efficient. To meet these demands, the steel industry continues to invest in advanced materials and manufacturing technologies. The industry’s investment led to the introduction of a wide variety of new automotive steels. Both industries know that every ounce counts.
Despite the development of high-tech materials and processes, the modern car still contains more steel than anything else: about 60 percent by weight. The car is usually a patchwork of a dozen or more steels of different types and strengths, tailored through computer modeling to handle the stress both of driving and of impact.
Only in recent years have researchers and manufacturers found ways to make economical high-strength steels that are pliant enough to be stamped and formed and that can be welded or otherwise joined to other parts in the complex auto assembly process.
Sheet metal stamping (or forming) is a process in which a piece of sheet metal, referred to as a blank, is formed by stretching between a punch and a die. Certainly a science but perceived to be an art, successful stamping is achieved through a complex balance of the sheet metal, die process, tooling, and lubrication. Producing a finished part includes not just the stamping operation but subsequent operations like trimming and flanging.
Hot stamping of press hardening steel is becoming a common approach to achieve complex parts possessing ultra-high-strength combined with virtually no springback.

What You Will Learn:
Learn about many different types of steel, along with their uses, advantages, and disadvantages. You will understand what you can change about your manufacturing process that will improve your results, making it faster and more economical as you produce scrap-free stampings.

Description:
In the Oscar-winning movie Whiplash, a talented young drummer and a respected music teacher engage in a battle of wills and wits. The simplest lesson of this dark, controversial film is practice makes perfect. Whether you play the drums or march in the drum line, you know that practice pays off. You store the steps and beats in your memory, leaving you free to perfect your performance.
Testing sheet metal to determine its properties is not unlike what musicians and athletes go through as they prepare for the big break or the big game. Your tests allow you to build a memory of properties and behaviors for grades of sheet metal and to perfect your forming techniques for reliable and optimal performance. Forming sheet metal components typically involves applying external forces to the work piece. Building dies for testing is expensive. We therefore test small samples of material with standardized test equipment to observe and record the behavior of materials under stress and to determine mechanical, chemical, and surface properties of sheet metal. (Do we need more cowbell?) Given a set of observed behaviors, we can predict the behavior and limits of our selected material with our equipment and specified geometries.

Tests include:

  • Tensile Testing
  • Metallography and Microscopy
  • Hardness Testing
  • Surface Analysis
  • Chemical Analysis
  • Coating Analysis
  • Forming Analysis

What You Will Learn:
You will be introduced to the types of tests available for sheet materials, the applications where each test is best employed, what the results of the tests are and how the results are used. The fundamental testing standards for determining mechanical, chemical, and surface properties of sheet material will be discussed.

Description:
Hot forming sheet metal components is becoming common and expected with today’s Advanced High-Strength Steels (AHSS). AHSS is the fastest growing set of steel grades in automotive applications. AHSS offers enhanced formability at higher strength. Cold forming AHSS can lead to severe and unpredictable springback. Hot forming relieves residual stresses in the formed workpiece which solves the springback problem. The quenching operation leads to a martensitic microstructure possessing ultra-high strength.
Hot forming involves heating the workpiece in a furnace, transferring it to the press, forming the component and quenching it while still in the press. The process allows for the forming of complex components in a single process, eliminating springback, and creates a product with strengths that can exceed 2 GPa or 300,000psi.

What You Will Learn:
You will learn the materials, processes, and benefits of hot forming ultra high-strength steel (UHSS) parts for automotive applications. We discuss how hot forming of UHSS provides dimensional control while achieving weight reduction and satisfying safety requirements.
You will also be introduced to the considerations of changing from conventional cold-forming to hot-forming and optimizing processes and equipment for forming steel at 900 degrees C. Topics will include:

  • Metallurgy
  • Hot Forming Process
  • Furnace Equipment
  • Press Equipment
  • Tool and Die
  • Automation
  • Process Control
  • Applications
  • Challenges

    AVAILABLE ON-DEMAND VIDEO COURSES

    Tensile Testing for Sheet Metal Formability

    We test materials, both to anticipate behaviors during manufacturing and to compare properties among different types and grades. Getting reliable test results requires consistently applied procedures and properly calibrated equipment.
    Tensile tests must be conducted using standardized equipment and procedures to ensure accurate and consistent results. To accomplish this, standards organizations publish sheet metal tensile test standards. These standards include:

    • ASTM E8/E8M: “Standard Test Methods for Tension Testing of Metallic Materials”
    • ISO 6892-1: “Metallic materials. Tensile testing. Method of test at ambient temperature”
    • JIS Z2241: “Method of tensile test for metallic materials”

    Your understanding of how to apply these standards will help you obtain meaningful tensile property values that will accurately characterize your sample. Inclusion of these test results will lead to a better correlation between simulation and actual stamping performance.

    What You Will Learn:
    This course will help you understand tensile testing, stress-strain curves, and the meaning and importance of test parameters including:

    Young’s Modulus (Elastic Modulus),
    Yield strength,
    Tensile strength,
    Total elongation,
    Uniform elongation,
    N-value, and
    R-value

    Video Course – Tensile Testing for Sheet Metal Formability
    Instructor: Danny Schaeffler, Ph.D.
    Link to on-demand video: https://vimeo.com/ondemand/4mtensiletesting

    Thinning Strain Analysis Procedures

    Thinning Strain Analysis (TSA) and Circle Grid Strain Analysis (CGSA) are powerful tools to determine if your forming process and sheet metal choice are sufficiently robust to handle the inherent variations of metal properties. Properly done, TSA and CGSA can offer you valuable insight into the forming capabilities of your selected sheet metal. Improper technique can lead you to make costly decisions.
    The easiest way to check your measurements is to compare the thickness calculated from your circle-grid surface-strain measurements to thickness measurements made using an ultrasonic thickness (UT) gauge. But, there is so much more information you can get from your part and process with just thickness measurements!
    TSA is easier to perform than CGSA and requires very little operator training. TSA can be performed on any formed part, without special preparation of the blank or tools before stamping, and it requires less stamping-plant involvement and assistance. Production stamping schedules are less likely to be disrupted when a TSA is needed, and TSA can be used when is it not practical to place circle grids on a blank— such as for parts stamped on a progressive die or in the central portion of a very large blank.

    What You Will Learn:
    This class will describe how thinning strain analysis can be used in conjunction with – and as a replacement for – circle grid strain analysis. The steps to convert your TSA measurements to plot on a conventional CGSA FLD will be covered.

    Video Course – Thinning Strain Analysis Procedures
    Instructor: Danny Schaeffler, Ph.D.
    Link to on-demand video: https://vimeo.com/ondemand/4mtsa

    From Melt to Shop Floor: How Terminology Changes

    Ordering sheet materials is similar to ordering an adult beverage. When you name a beverage, you are specifying your expectations for taste and appearance. Meeting your expectations involves selecting the right ingredients, pouring and garnishing, and selecting the right glass for the chosen beverage. Your sheet material order also involves selecting the right ingredients, combining and milling them properly, and employing appropriate processes to meet your requirements for properties and dimensions.
    Your order arrives with a list of processes, test results, and specifications. If you pay attention to these, you will notice when differences happen and discover which manufacturing process support your needs to form quality components.
    This course explains some of the basic terminology explained in your paperwork.

    Video Course – From Melt to Shop Floor: How Terminology Changes
    Instructor: Danny Schaeffler, Ph.D.
    Link to on-demand video: https://vimeo.com/ondemand/4Mterminology

    Understanding Mill Certifications of Sheet Metal Properties

    If you’ve ever seen a Road Runner cartoon, you know that Wile E. Coyote tries everything to capture his prey, and often orders materials from the fictitious Acme Corporation. If any of these materials came with a Mill Certification Sheet and the Coyote took the time to read it, he might be spared the spectacular failures of his complex products – and eventually dine on Road Runner.
    This Mill Cert, also known as a Certified Material Test Report, Mill Test Report, or simply a Cert Sheet, is part of the paperwork that arrives with a sheet metal shipment. The Mill Cert includes much more information than the name of the buyer and seller. If you know what you’re looking for, you can learn about some of the metal’s properties and predict how it will react in your facility.
    The way sheet metal behaves during stamping is influenced by its tensile properties, chemical composition, grain size, and surface profile. Information about each of these may be included on the mill cert, providing traceability and assurance to the end user about the quality of the steel used and the process used to produce it.
    Carefully examining a mill cert can help prevent expensive and time-consuming problems, maximizing uptime, and help with your root-cause analysis of stamping splits

    What You Will Learn:
    Students learn about the information that is typically contained on Mill Certifications. We discuss how retaining that information may be used to ensure that received coils meet your specifications, monitor success and issues with coils in production, and monitor variation in coil properties over time.

    Video Course – Understanding Mill Certifications of Sheet Metal Properties
    Instructor: Danny Schaeffler, Ph.D.
    Link to on-demand video: https://vimeo.com/ondemand/4mmillcerts

    Sheet Steel Manufacturing Process

    It is important for the metalforming professional to understand the steelmaking process. The making and rolling of steel determines how the workpiece will behave under forming, how it will respond to stress, and what the metal’s strain characteristics will be.
    Steelmaking is the process of melting iron and its components into a molten form and shaping it into slabs, beams, or billets at a foundry. After the foundry, the steel is transferred to a rolling mill where it is hot rolled or cold rolled to shape it into desired form and thickness. The mill may also do annealing to remove residual stresses and treat the product for corrosion resistance.
    Steelmaking has undergone a number of changes in recent history to meet political and social demands and because of advances in technology. As you can imagine, foundry and milling operations require tremendous amounts of energy. As a result, emission of gasses and energy efficiency are issues the industry continues to address. Steelmaking byproducts also must be handled appropriately, Byproducts include slag, contact water, oil, grease, and mill scale.
    Molten steel is produced in one of two types of facilities: an integrated steel mill using a blast furnace and a basic oxygen furnace or a “mini-mill” using an electric arc furnace. In either route, molten steel is solidified into a slab, and rolled down to the ordered thickness using controlled reductions at specific temperatures. Each step has some influence on the final properties.

    What You Will Learn:
    This course introduces you to the significant aspects of steelmaking, rolling, and galvanizing. We cover the journey steel takes going from the liquid melt to your shop floor, including operations like:

    • Steelmaking from raw materials or scrap
    • Casting
    • Hot rolling
    • Cold rolling
    • Annealing
    • Galvanizing

    Video Course – Sheet Steel Manufacturing Proces
    Instructor: Danny Schaeffler, Ph.D.
    Link to on-demand video: https://vimeo.com/ondemand/4MsteelManufacture