Further Development of the SCS Stretch-Forming Technology with Assistance of Forming Simulation

In order to meet customers’ requirements on individual vehicle design, the automotive industry focuses on product diversification. Cost-effective tools for production of high quality parts in future are required. For this pur-pose a new technology called SCS (Short-Cycle-Stretch-Forming) was developed at the Institute for Metal Forming Technology (IFU) at the University of Stuttgart [1, 2]. The SCS technology combines a plane pre-stretching and deep drawing operation for producing small car body panels with high surface quality. This technology is based on a low cost tool concept which is used in a single action deep drawing press [3]. Beside the fact that the parts become stretched laterally prior deep drawing phase, the tool concept works without any blank holder. Required restraining force is ap-plied by two opposed interlocking convex bead set elements witch alternately bend and unbend the blank while the tool is closing. Due to the simple tool design this process becomes very cost-efficient. This contribution focuses on a further development of an existing SCS tool for producing car body panels with assistance of forming simulation. Occurring cracks and wrinkles during process were eliminated by modifying the bead set, the blank shape and the blank dimen-sions. This optimisation of the SCS tool which leads to parts without any failure mode is described in this paper.