Reduction of cracking on parts during forming

Automotive
Spain
Challenge
The company aimed to reduce thermal and acoustic insulation parts’ cracking during forming, a common issue for part makers that can be originated by multiple causes. Estamp wanted to understand if the crack problems were originated because of the formability of the materials and figure out which material parameters affect more to the formability process.
FormPlanet test bed solution
The use of FormPlanet fracture toughness analysis by means of the Essential Work of Fracture methodology was applied, as well as standard tensile tests, the Nakajima FLC test and ARGUS (by GOM) scanning to compare the results of numerical simulation and real part.
This allowed to quantify the plastic deformation of the material during the process to minimise the impact it will have on subsequent forming operations. It also permitted to propose theoretical models to predict the deformation curves evolution under different scenarios, allowing the production process to be optimised and reducing the cost of inadequate quality resulting from cracks.