Hot-Stamping Mold Cooling Control for Variable-Strength Parts
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Solution Overview
Problem
The existing methods for hot stamping require multiple molds for forming various components, which are complex, expensive, and inefficient due to direct contact cooling methods, limiting the ability to create components with different strengths and shapes.
Innovation Solution
A multi-point forming technology using a hot stamping mold device with air jet nozzles for controlled cooling, allowing for adjustable cooling speeds and temperatures through flow rate control, enabling the formation of components with varying strengths and shapes in a single mold by integrating pressing and cooling forming modules.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Strength
If direct contact cooling method with cooling water is used to rapidly cool the material, then the strength is increased, but the mold structure becomes complicated and expensive
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces the traditional liquid cooling water system with a gas-based cooling system using compressed air delivered through hoses and nozzles. This pneumatic cooling approach simplifies the mold structure by eliminating complex internal cooling channels and water circulation systems, while still achieving rapid cooling to increase material strength
Solution Approach 2:
The invention extracts the cooling function from the mold structure itself and separates it into an external cooling system. By removing the material from the mold immediately after forming and applying cooling externally through air nozzles, the patent eliminates the need for complicated internal mold cooling channels, thereby simplifying the mold structure while maintaining the strength-enhancing cooling effect
2Adaptability or versatility
If a hot stamping mold is manufactured for each component to form various components, then various shapes can be formed, but the structure becomes complicated and difficult to process
Solution Approach 1:
The patent creates a universal hot stamping mold that can form various component shapes by using interchangeable forming plates and adjustable positioning systems. Instead of manufacturing dedicated molds for each component, a single multi-functional mold system can accommodate different component geometries, thereby reducing structural complexity and manufacturing costs while maintaining versatility
Solution Approach 2:
The invention introduces dynamic and adjustable elements into the mold system, such as movable forming plates, adjustable positioning mechanisms, and flexible tooling fixtures. These dynamic components allow the same mold structure to adapt to different component shapes and sizes, eliminating the need for multiple fixed molds and simplifying the overall system
3Strength
If cooling water flows through a cooling fluid passage in the mold to rapidly cool the material, then the strength is increased, but the manufacturing cost increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces the expensive liquid cooling water infrastructure with a simpler pneumatic system using compressed air. This substitution reduces manufacturing costs by eliminating the need for complex water circulation systems, cooling channels, and associated infrastructure, while still achieving the rapid cooling necessary to increase material strength
Solution Approach 2:
The invention employs disposable or easily replaceable cooling elements such as external air nozzles and hoses that can be quickly changed or replaced. This approach reduces manufacturing costs compared to permanently embedded cooling channels in the mold structure, as the cooling system becomes a separate, simpler, and more economical component
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
Enables the formation of hot stamping components with diverse shapes and strengths in a single mold by controlling cooling speeds and temperatures, reducing production costs and complexity while enhancing mechanical properties through partial quenching and uniform/local cooling.
Implementation Method 1
controls a cooling speed and a temperature of a high-temperature forming material through flow rate control of cooling air or mist supplied through an air jet nozzle
Implementation Method 2
a method of increasing a strength of a material by forming a boron steel material heated to 950° C. or higher in a solid stamping mold and rapidly cooling the boron steel material in the mold at the same time
Data Source
AI summary
According to the present disclosure, a hot stamping forming method for forming components having various strength according to parts through cooling control for each position includes: setting a required strength for each product part for a sheet supplied into a multi-point forming mold device to which a plurality of forming modules are coupled; adjusting an arrangement of the plurality of forming modules according to the set required strength; and performing cooling control for each part by controlling an amount of cooling air or mist sprayed to the sheet by the air jet nozzle in order to achieve a required cooling speed for each strength part of the supplied sheet, wherein components having various shapes are formable with respect to the supplied sheet in a single mold.