Influence of sheet metal texture on the adhesive wear and friction behaviour of EN AW-5083 aluminum under dry and starved lubrication

Dry sheet metal forming of aluminum by smooth DLC coatings – a capable approach for an efficient production process with reduced environmental impact

Characterization of a novel aerostatic lubrication system for deep drawing processes

The idea of sustainability and resource conservation promotes the development of energy-efficient and low-emission production processes. A lubricant-free sheet metal forming process is considered as one of these environmentally friendly production technologies. Metal forming processes without conventional lubricants shorten process steps and reduce additional costs, such as removal of residual lubrication from the workpiece after forming. In order to realize such a dry forming process and effectively control the material flow, amorphous carbon coatings were applied to the tool surfaces and a brushing process was carried out as a surface finishing process for roughness adjustment. Laser generated micro features on the surface should make an effective contribution to local friction adaptation. The transferability of strip drawing test to strip bending rotation test was successfully demonstrated by dry and oiled blank reference tests. The first modification of the tool sided surface was achieved by applying ta-C and a-C:H layers. The influence of the coatings on the tribological behaviour was determined in strip drawing tests for DC04 and AA5182. Additional friction adaptation is made possible by the fine and flexible laser based micro texturing of the coated tool surface. Experiments were carried out with different coverage and depth of the laser generated features in order to analyze the tribological influence. Flat and deep features with a degree of coverage of 20 %, 35 % and 50 % are considered in order to analyze the factors influencing their tribological behavior. Compared to ta-C coated references, it can be seen that micro features on the ta-C coated tool surface causes a friction reduction for DC04, independent of the features depth. However, deep laser generated features in particular lead to an increase in friction for AA5182, so that this could potentially lead to a selective local increase in friction in the flange area. For the transferability of the tribological system from the flat application case to a curved tool surface, the basics for laser based texturing of cylinder surfaces are illustrated. The limits of the holographic beam shaping technology used for this are demonstrated.

Influence of laser generated micro textured coated tool surfaces on dry deep drawing processes

A novel tribological system has been developed, in which volatile lubricants (carbon dioxide - CO$_{2}$ or nitrogen- N$_{2}$) are used as a substitute for mineral oil-based lubricants in deep drawing processes. This process enables the introduction of an intermediate medium under high pressure through flow-optimized, laser-drilled micro holes into the contact surfaces. This eliminates the need for subsequent, cost-intensive cleaning processes, as the volatile lubricants evaporate without leaving any residue during expansion to ambient pressure.
The design of initial micro hole geometries was based on simulations of the flow behaviour of the lubricants passing through, which in turn were validated using pressure reactor tests. In addition, the wetting behaviour of CO$_{2}$ on relevant surfaces (tool surface and sheet material surface) was investigated experimentally using the captive-bubble-method. Thus, the optimal design of the micro holes (diameter, hole geometry and number of micro holes) could be determined using flat strip drawing tests. The optimal micro hole geometry determined in this way is suited for the use of both CO$_{2}$ and N$_{2}$ as volatile lubricant. Furthermore, extensive investigations for the production of the required micro hole geometry by laser drilling were carried out. The fundamentals for drilling micro holes in steel with high aspect ratios could be developed using an ultrashort pulsed research laser with very high pulse energy. Further experiments were conducted using an ultrashort pulsed prototype laser of the kW-class specially developed to increase productivity when drilling a multitude of micro holes with higher average laser power. The novel tribological system has been characterised by means of strip drawing tests and stretch bending tests. For both, CO$_{2}$ (liquid) and N$_{2}$ (gaseous), relatively low friction values could be achieved compared to conventional lubricants. It could be shown that deep drawing with both CO$_{2}$ and N$_{2}$ as dry lubricants is possible. Here, usage of the volatile lubricants not only allows the replacement of mineral oil based lubricants, but even improves the tribological system with regard to frictional forces in sheet metal forming. The feasibility of the new tribological system has been proven by performing deep drawing tests of rectangular cups. These tests showed a significantly enlarged process window of the forming process, which emphasise the tremendous potential of this new tribological system.

Tribological system for cold sheet metal forming based on volatile lubricants and laser structured surfaces

In the present study, the surface conditions of workpieces used for dry-metal forming experiments were analyzed. Specifically, the effectiveness of different cleaning approaches was evaluated using x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, infrared spectroscopy and wetting experiments. The best cleaning results were obtained using a CO2-based approach. CO2 acts as an effective solvent and as a result of the mechanical impact, it removes material from the surface. In fact, cleaning results were similar to those achieved by plasma cleaning. However, even simple cleaning with a towel and acetone left only a surface film of less than 100 nm. A residual oil film thickness below 100 nm on the work piece appears sufficient to mimic true dry-forming conditions in most cases. In order to determine cleanliness of surfaces used in drymetal forming, an infrared spectroscopy-based oil film gauge along with a customized extended calibration curve turned out to provide for sufficiently accurate data.

J. Tenner

Papers

How dry is dry? - A critical analysis of surface conditions used in dry metal forming