On the nominal transverse shear strain to characterize the severity of creasing

A transverse shear strain was utilized to characterize the severity of creasing for a wide range of tooling configurations. An analytic expression of transverse shear strain, which accounts for tooling geometry, correlated well with relative crease strength and springback as determined from 90° fold tests. The experimental results show a minimum strain (elastic limit) that needs to be exceeded for the relative crease strength to be reduced. The theory predicts a maximum achievable transverse shear strain, which is further limited if the tooling clearance is negative. The elastic limit and maximum strain thus describe the range of interest for effective creasing. In this range, cross direction (CD)-creased samples were more sensitive to creasing than machine direction (MD)-creased samples, but the differences were reduced as the shear strain approached the maximum. The presented development provides the foundation for a quantitative engineering approach to creasing and folding operations.