High speed thermo-forming of 5083 aluminum alloy for use in automotive industry

在过去的30年里，轻量化结构的生产一直是汽车工业最重要的优先事项之一。近年来，铝合金作为汽车车身覆盖件的替代材料备受关注。目前，汽车车身的主要金属薄板零件均采用冷冲压工艺生产。然而，铝合金板材在冷冲压过程中成形性能差，回弹严重，因此超塑性成形等新的成形技术被引入并被工业应用。然而，SPF固有的低速生产周期限制了其在汽车零部件大规模生产中的应用。因此，需要开发生产率更快的新技术。最新的技术之一是高速热成型(HSTF)。HSTF的生产速度估计比SPF方法高一个数量级。在此背景下，Verbom Inc.，加拿大交通行业SPF铝部件生产的领先者之一，正计划将HSTF技术整合到其生产线中。然而，为了实现这一目标，在HSTF项目全面工业应用之前，需要对该过程进行全面的研究，涉及到该过程中的温度演变、材料行为(本构方程)、金属-模具界面的摩擦条件、成形气体的影响等基本问题。本项目是在这一背景下确定的，其目标是对上述变量的影响有一个更基本的了解。该项目将跨越三年，将涉及一名博士后研究员、一名博士和一名硕士学生。

During the last 30 years the production of lightweight structures has been one of the most important priorities for the auto industry. In recent years, much attention has been paid to aluminum alloys as an alternative to steel particularly for car body panels.To date, the main sheet metal components of car bodies are produced by cold stamping process. However, sheet aluminum alloys, show low formability and sever springback during cold stamping, therefore new forming technologies such as superplastic forming (SPF) have been introduced and used by industry. However, low speed production cycle inherent to SPF, limits its application for mass production of automotive components. Therefore, new technologies with faster production rates need to be developed. One of the most recent technologies is the High Speed Thermo-Forming (HSTF). The production rate by HSTF is estimated to be one order of magnitude higher than the SPF method. In this context, Verbom Inc., one the leaders in the production of SPF aluminum parts for transport industry in Canada, is planning to integrate HSTF technology in its production line. However, in order to reach this goal, a comprehensive investigation of the process is essential and fundamental questions related to temperature evolution during the process, material behavior (constitutive equations), frictional conditions at the interface metal-die, the influence of the forming gas need to be investigated before a full scale industrial application of the HSTF project. The present project has been defined in this context and its objective is to develop a more fundamental understanding of the effects of the above mentioned variables. The project will span over three years and will involve a post-doctoral fellow, a PhD and an MSc student.