MICHIGAN TECH RESEARCHERS
TO IMPROVE ALUMINUM STAMPING
HOUGHTON, MI--Two researchers in Michigan Tech's Department of Mechanical Engineering-Engineering Mechanics are working to improve the technology of aluminum sheet stamping through a $300,000 grant from the Department of Energy and the Aluminum Company of America. Dr. Klaus Weinman and Dr. Abhijit (Ab-i-jit) Chandra are trying to control the stamping process to avoid the tearing or wrinkling of the aluminum.
The project is part of the Partnership for a New Generation of Vehicles (NGV). The goal of NGV is to produce a car that gets 80 miles per gallon. The use of aluminum body panels instead of steel would greatly decrease the weight of the vehicle, but "aluminum is more difficult to form, creating a greater technical challenge," explains Weinman.
The goal is to create an "intelligent stamping die" or a die that is instrumented and equipped to sense potential problems and take preventive actions. When forming sheet metal, controlling drawbeads are used to help control the flow of metal into the die. He explains, "the drawbeads are usually fixed, but our ploy is to make them movable, hydraulically." By changing the height of the drawbeads through closed loop control, researchers will be able to control the flow of the metal into the die so that sound parts are produced.
"We have already done enough work to prove that our idea works," says Weinman. "We have adjusted the drawbeads during the stamping process directly and were able to improve the depth of the draw."
The team is now working on their intelligent die, which would sense problems and move the drawbeads accordingly.
For more information contact Dr. Klaus Weinman at 906/487-2154 or by email at kjweinma@mtu.edu.
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04/13/99 MTN078