Effect of Friction on Weld-Line Movement and Thickness Distribution in Hydro-Mechanical Deep Drawing of Tailor-Welded Blanks (TWBs)

Use of Tailor-Welded Blanks (TWBs) in production has significant advantages such as weight and cost reduction. These benefits cause TWBs to be considered in aerospace and automotive industry. However, their application requires processes that increase their poor formability in comparison with base materials. One of these procedures is the use of fluid pressure in sheet metal forming. In this paper hydro-mechanical deep drawing process of tailor-welded low carbon steel blanks with different thicknesses is studied using FEM and verified experimentally and effect of friction between blank and tooling elements on weld-line movement and thickness distribution is investigated. Results of FEM are in good agreement with experiments. Results show that it is possible to control thickness distribution and weld-line movement by proper design of friction condition inasmuch as elimination of weld-line movement in bottom of the produced cup.