Great article on hot stamping by Mike Austin of Diversified Tooling Group, It concisely covers the challenges associated with hot forming and shows why it is so much more complex than conventional cold stamping. Problems from friction appear differently in hot stamping- because there is a different root cause, there is a different corrective action. Free flow of metal into the cavity minimizes friction, but the critical cooling rate is [...]
NSSMC (Nippon-Sumitomo) and JFE Steel jointly developed a cold formable steel having a minimum tensile strength of 1300MPa. The first production application is the 2019 Mazda 3, where it is used for the front pillar inner, roof rail inner, hinge pillar reinforcement, roof rail reinforcement, side sill inner reinforcement, and the No. 2 crossmember. Mazda expects to use this throughout their lineup. No doubt that joining and repair techniques need [...]
Electric motor efficiency is improved by using thinner sheets of electrical steels. This is important to meet the needs of hybrid/electric vehicles. But more laminations need to be stamped from this thinner metal to get to the same stator height. An article from steelmaker voestalpine says that at least 60 additional high-precision stamping lines/presses will be needed by 2025 for production of 25 million drive motors with a lamination thickness [...]
More than half will go to automating a 3.52 million ton Gwangyang Steel Mill blast furnace, expanding production capability of their "Giga Steel" and establishing power generation facilities using byproduct gases. Other funds will be devoted to secondary battery materials and upgrading lithium-extracting technologies, with a similar amount going to their energy and infrastructure businesses. Read more about Posco's plan. -Danny Schaeffler, www.EQSgroup.com and www.Learning4M.com
Every few months, we at EQS and 4M send out a newsletter covering info related to the sheet metal forming industries. Topics in a recent newsletter included material selection strategies at automakers, friction stir welding, servo presses, Tesla build quality, and laser blanking. If you want to get on the distribution list, please sign up on the EQS website. Here's a reprint of that newsletter from the 4th quarter of [...]
SSAB has a good post on why tensile test elongation is not the best way to assess formability of AHSS steel. It has to do with averaging deformation over a large gauge length. Coincidentally, I've written about this in an article to be published in the February 2019 issue of MetalForming Magazine. Read more from SSAB in their article, The Forming Myth -Danny Schaeffler, www.EQSgroup.com and www.Learning4M.com
Steel and aluminum alloys are looking to be the chosen metal in auto bodies. Why? There are 2 tons of sheetmetal purchased for 17MM vehicles sold each year in the US - there is no other industry with such high-volume sales opportunities. Read about strength, stiffness, and joining in my article in the May 2018 issue of MetalForming Magazine at www.metalformingmagazine.com/magazine/article/?/2018/5/1/The_Aluminum-Steel_Battle_in_Automotive_Applications
Nissan's plant in Smyrna, TN makes 640,000 vehicles a year, which is more than 1 per second. The stamping plant goes through 15 tons of steel and over half a ton of aluminum EVERY HOUR. automotivemanufacturingsolutions.com/focus/stamp-of-approval
The February issue (Part 1) discusses some of the general terms you’ll encounter. Remember, it’s important that you and your supplier both use the same language to be sure you’ll get what you need. The March issue (Part 2) describes the limitations of ordering AISI 1008/1010, and why you might need to change to something like SAE J2329 for more consistent performance. The April issue (Part 3) highlights terms you’ll [...]
