Numerical study of contact conditions in press hardening for tool wear simulation

In the press hardening industry, industrial and academic efforts are being directed toward predicting tool wear to realize an economical manufacturing process. Tool wear in press hardening is a tribological response to contact conditions such as pressure and sliding motion. However, these contact conditions are difficult to measure in-situ. Furthermore, press hardening involves high temperatures, and this increases the complexity of the tribo system. The present work investigated the contact conditions of press hardening with a commercial FE code (LS-DYNA) as a base for tool wear simulation. A press hardening experiment was established in industrial environments and evaluated through FE simulations. The numerical model was set up so as to approximate the manufacturing conditions as closely as possible, and the sensitivity with respect to the friction coefficients was examined. The influence of numerical factors such as the penalty value and mesh size on the contact conditions is discussed. The implementation of a modified Archard’s wear model in the FE simulation proved the possibility of tool wear simulation in press hardening. Finally, a comparison between the tool wear simulation and the measured wear depth is presented.