Press-Formed Inner Panel Transfer and Crack-Resistant Blank Shaping
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Solution Overview
Problem
Press-formed products, such as automobile hood inner panels, face challenges in achieving reduced weight and increased rigidity while minimizing forming defects like cracks and ensuring accurate transfer during the press forming process, especially with thin steel sheets.
Innovation Solution
A method involving forming a manufacturing intermediate with a planned outline portion, maintaining a flat shape, creating through-holes, and then forming stretch-formed portions with a predetermined height, using a vacuum carrier machine for transfer, and applying finishing work like restriking to enhance bending rigidity and prevent deformation.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Weight of moving object
If the sheet thickness of the inner panel is made thin to achieve weight reduction, then the weight is reduced, but the bending rigidity becomes insufficient and cracks occur during press forming
Solution Approach 1:
The invention forms a curved surface portion with a predetermined curvature radius in the blank sheet before press forming. This pre-formed curvature creates a stiffening effect that enhances bending rigidity while maintaining thin sheet thickness, preventing cracks during the press forming process while achieving weight reduction goals
2Weight of moving object
If the sheet thickness of the inner panel is made thin to achieve weight reduction, then the weight is reduced, but forming defects such as cracks occur during press forming
Solution Approach 1:
By pre-forming a curved surface portion with controlled curvature radius in the blank sheet, the invention improves formability and prevents cracking during press forming of thin sheets, thereby maintaining high manufacturing precision and forming quality while achieving weight reduction
3Ease of operation
If a vacuum carrier machine is used to transfer the thin sheet, then the transfer is enabled, but unintended plastic deformation occurs due to deflection from suction force
Solution Approach 1:
The pre-formed curved surface portion acts as a self-supporting structure that maintains the blank sheet's shape during vacuum carrier machine transfer. The curvature provides inherent stiffness that prevents excessive deflection under suction force, eliminating unintended plastic deformation and ensuring dimensional accuracy is maintained during transfer operations
4Ease of operation
If the suction force is reduced due to gap formation during transfer, then the vacuum carrier machine cannot maintain proper suction, but misalignment and falling off occur
Solution Approach 1:
The curved surface portion creates a self-supporting structure that maintains consistent spacing between the blank sheet and the vacuum carrier machine surface during transfer. This geometric feature prevents gap formation that would reduce suction force, ensuring stable transfer and accurate positioning without misalignment or falling off
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
This method effectively suppresses forming defects and transfer-related issues, ensuring high dimensional accuracy and productivity by enhancing the bending rigidity and preventing unintended deformation during the press forming process.
Implementation Method 1
it is conceivable to use a vacuum carrier machine to transfer a thin sheet while sucking the starting material
Data Source
AI summary
A method for manufacturing a press-formed product suppresses occurrence of a forming defect such as a crack in a starting material during press forming, and also suppresses occurrence of problems when transferring a starting material during press forming. A manufacturing intermediate is formed by forming, in a flat-sheet shaped blank sheet, a planned outline portion including an undulating shape which is used for forming an outline of an outer circumferential portion of a press-formed product. The flat shape of the blank sheet is maintained in a region from the planned outline portion toward the center of the manufacturing intermediate, or an intermediate stretch-formed portion having a predetermined intermediate forming height is formed in the manufacturing intermediate in the region. A through-hole is formed by piercing a flat portion at which the flat shape is maintained or a stretch-formed-side top portion of the intermediate stretch-formed portion.