Non-isothermal warm deep process based on pulsating blank holder force: improving the formability of AA5083 using FE analysis

Increasing the use of aluminum alloy sheets in the automotive industry, due to the high strength-to-weight ratio, requires improving the formability problems of this metal. Warm forming of aluminum alloys is a practical solution to improve and enhance this challenge. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the process of the non-isothermal warm deep drawing process by applying the pulsating blank holder force during forming that facilitates the material flow of the sheet while sliding into the matrix cavity. To this end, using the optimal results from a combination of experimental and numerical results at ambient temperature, deep drawing experiments were performed by applying a temperature gradient to AA5083 sheets with a thickness of 2 mm at 150 ◦C The results showed that in the non-isothermal warm deep process based on pulsating blank holder force, in addition to reducing the forming force, a significant increase in deep drawability was achieved compared with the constant blank holder force at ambient temperature.