Flexible Die Design and Springback Compensation Based on Modified Displacement Adjustment Method

Springback in metal forming process often results in undesirable shape changes in formed parts and leads to deterioration in product quality. Even though springback can be predicted and compensated for through the theories or methodologies established thus far, an increase in manufacturing cost accompanied by a change in die shape is inevitable. In the present paper, it is suggested that the cost accompanied with springback compensation can be minimized while allowing the processing of various three-dimensional curved surfaces by using a flexible die composed of multiple punches. With the die being very flexible, the iterative trial-and-error method can be readily applied to compensate for the springback. Thus, repeated designing and redesigning of solid or matched dies can be avoided, effectively saving considerable time. Only some adjustments of punch height are required. Detailed designs of the flexible die as well as two core algorithms to control the respective punch heights are described in this paper. In addition, a closed-loop system for the springback compensation using the flexible die is proposed. The amount of springback was simulated by a finite element analysis and the modified displacement adjustment (DA) method as the springback compensation model was used in the closed-loop system. This system was applied to a two-dimensional quadratic shape problem, and its robustness was verified by an experiment