Mechanisms for controlling springback and strength in heat-assisted sheet forming

The recently developed multi-step sheet forming technology with inductive in-situ heating serves to increase the productivity and to reduce costs compared to hot stamping with furnace heating. The paper reveals the mechanisms for the flexible setting of geometric and mechanical properties such as the bending angle and strength in terms of a closed loop control. The air and die bending as representative forming processes are analyzed with respect to the mechanisms overbending, springback and thermal distortion by experimental, numerical, and analytical investigations. The mechanisms for controlling strength in carbon steels by grain refinement, grain growth and cooling rate are described. (C) 2018 Published by Elsevier Ltd on behalf of CIRP.