Design of Complex Sheet Metal Forming Processes: A New Computer Aided Progressive Approach

The growing interest in sheet metal stamping processes, particularly in automotive industry, led to three main issues in this field: request of very complex shapes; growing interest in springback control; solution of multi-objective problems. This makes the design of the sheet metal stamping processes very difficult, since the number of both design variables and design objectives are progressively increased; therefore, proper design methodologies to reduce times and costs are highly required. In this paper, an innovative design approach able to manage and optimize complex stamping operations is proposed. In particular, a progressive design approach based on the integration between numerical simulations, Response Surface Methodology (RSM) and Pareto optimal solutions search techniques was applied in order to design a complex automotive sheet stamping operation.