Journal of Materials Processing Technology 233 (2016) 79–88

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Journal of Materials Processing Technology

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jmatprotec

Incremental electromagnetic-assisted stamping (IEMAS) with radial

magnetic pressure: A novel deep drawing method for forming
aluminum alloy sheets
Xiaohui Cui a , Jianjun Li b,∗ , Jianhua Mo b,∗ , Jinxiu Fang b , Bo Zhou b , Xiaoting Xiao a ,
Fei Feng c
a
School of Material and Energy, Guang Dong University of Technology, Guang zhou 510006, China
b
State Key Laboratory of Material Processing and Die and Mould Technology, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan 430074, China
c
School of Mechanical and Automotive Engineering, Hubei University of Arts and Science, Xiangyang 441053, China

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: A new forming method denoted as incremental electromagnetic-assisted stamping (IEMAS) with radial
Received 21 May 2015 magnetic pressure is proposed in this paper, which was adopted for the deep drawing of a cylindrical
Received in revised form 18 February 2016 cup. In comparison with the traditional stamping process, the forming depth could be increased by 31%
Accepted 20 February 2016
after three consecutive coil discharges. A 3D finite element model was built to determine the reason for
Available online 23 February 2016
the increase in forming depth. We found that a radial magnetic force is generated at the sheet center
when placing the coil at the end of the sheet, which will produce a material flow from the sheet flange
Keywords:
to the region corresponding to the corner of the die after the coil discharge. This ensures that the sheet
Incremental electromagnetic-assisted
stamping
does not become too thin in a certain region. Therefore, deeper cylindrical cups can be manufactured by
Radial magnetic force IEMAS with radial magnetic pressure.
Inverse bulging © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Multiple-discharge process
FEM

1. Introduction electromagnetic forming (EMF) technology. Li et al. (2009) found

To satisfy the requirements for the fabrication of high-speed
trains, large aircrafts, the next generation of fighter planes and large
launch vehicles in China, current technologies for the rapid produc-
tion of sheet metal parts must be further improved to allow for the
fabrication of large, thin-walled structures with deep cavities. In
order to reduce the weight and increase the carrying capacity limits,
e.g., in the aviation, aerospace, and transportation industry, large
whole thin-walled structures can be manufactured using high-
performance aluminum alloys. However, in conventional forming
processes, the forming limits of aluminum alloys are usually much
lower than the forming limits of steel. Furthermore, a high spring-
back usually occurs when forming aluminum because it has a lower
elastic modulus than steel, which decreases the dimensional accu-
racy.
Several studies have indicated that the formability of alu-
minum alloys increases when formed by high-speed processes.
Imbert et al. (2005) demonstrated an increased formability
of AA5754 sheets when formed into a conical die using the
∗ Corresponding authors.
E-mail addresses: ljj@263.net.cn (J. Li), mjh@mail.hust.edu.cn (J. Mo).
that the formability of aluminum alloy sheets that were subjected
to a quasi-static–dynamic tensile process was significantly higher
than the formability observed during quasi-static tensile tests, and
it was a little higher than or at least similar to the formability
observed when applying a fully dynamic EMF process.
A detailed review by Psyk et al. (2011) showed that EMF
offers several advantages compared to the conventional quasi-
static forming process, e.g., increased forming limits, a reduced
springback, and a high reproducibility. However, the energy loss
in many ways during the EMF process, such as heating the coil and
metal workpiece, leaking of magnetic fields and reactive force in the
coil. As a result, a very small portion of the discharge energy can
actually be transferred as deformation energy. Therefore, higher
discharge energy is required to produce deep parts, making it dif-
ficult to form deep parts with conventional EMF techniques due to
the limit of high costs.
In order to produce deep and large parts for industrial appli-
cation, a multi-step EMF technology is needed. Shang and Daehn
(2011) therefore proposed an electromagnetic-assisted stamping
(EMAS) method. In this forming process, the coil is embedded in
the bottom of a punch to repeatedly and gradually stretch the
bottom of the metal part. The punch is gradually moved down-
wards between the electromagnetic pulses to flatten the area at the

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jmatprotec.2016.02.013
0924-0136/© 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
80 X. Cui et al. / Journal of Materials Processing Technology 233 (2016) 79–88

Fig. 1. Illustration of the two different methods to apply a magnetic force on the sheet end: (a) hydro-forming combined with radial pressure (Lin et al., 2013), (b) 3D view
of reconnection electromagnetic launch (Tang, 2010) (c) cross section of reconnection electromagnetic launch (Tang, 2010).

Fig. 2. Experimental set-up: (a) schematic diagram of the forming apparatus, (b) photographic image of the real forming apparatus, (c) detailed schematic diagram and
dimensions of the forming system.

bottom. In comparison with the traditional stamping method, the
draw depth could be enhanced by 44.3% when using EMAS. Liu et al.
(2009) used the EMAS technology to decrease the corner radius
of the cylindrical cup. Firstly, the pre-forming part with an 8 mm
corner radius was produced through traditional stamping. Then, a
discharge coil embedded in a punch with a 5 mm corner radius was
used for an additional deformation of the sheet region within the
corner radius. Kiliclar et al. (2012) investigated the combining con-
ventional deep drawing and electromagnetic forming to drawing a
cross-shaped cup with sharpened radius at cup edges. The coupling
of finite strain anisotropic viscoelastic model and ductile damage
is applied to simulate the combined forming process. The results
show that an increase in the total deformation can be achieved by
a high speed forming step after a conventional quasi-static deep
 X. Cui et al. / Journal of Materials Processing Technology 233 (2016) 79–88 81

Fig. 3. Current measurement: (a) Rogowski coil, (b) variation of the current flowing through the coil with time.

Fig. 4. Photos of the sample after quasi-static stamping: (a) necking phenomenon (b) sheet diameter after the punch was moved down by 19 mm; (c) the sheet broke when
the punch was continued to be moved further down.

Fig. 5. Illustration of the inverse sheet bulging observed after a single discharge of the three coils.
82 X. Cui et al. / Journal of Materials Processing Technology 233 (2016) 79–88

Fig. 6. Photos of the sample after the punch was moved down by: (a) 1 mm, (b) 2 mm, (c) 3 mm, and (d) 4 mm after the coil discharge.

Fig. 7. Sample after three consecutive coil discharges, followed by moving the punch: (a) maximum forming depth, (b) sheet diameter.

Fig. 8. Illustration of the finite element model: (a) electromagnetic field model; (b) structural model and preforming result.

drawing step. Based on the principle of single-point incremental
forming, Cui et al. (2014a) proposed a new technology denoted as
electromagnetic incremental forming (EMIF). This novel method
allowed to form a larger aluminum alloy sheet using a small work-
ing coil and a small discharge energy. However, it is difficult to
further increase the forming depth because the bottom of the sheet
becomes too thin due to the electromagnetic pulse force. In addi-
tion, the above modifications of the EMF method have not resolved
the problem of the material flow in the sheet flange region, and
therefore it is difficult to further improve the drawing depth.
In order for EMF to become one of the main technologies in
the future of manufacturing, the feasibility of producing two dif-
ferent typical parts, which are widely used in the aviation and
aerospace industry, via EMF should to be demonstrated: (1) parts
with a large height to diameter ratio, such as missile shells and
cowlings; (2) large-scale curved parts, such as rocket fuel tanks
with a diameter of up to 5 m. Therefore, to break the limit of
traditional single magnetic field-based technologies, we propose
using a multi-directional electromagnetic force to drive the plastic
flow of the metal parts. This study aimed to prove the feasible that
using a multi-directional electromagnetic force can achieve a pre-
cise shaping of cups with a large height to diameter ratio than the
tradition stamping.
Usually, the wall thickness distribution is non-uniform during
the traditional cylindrical deep drawing process, which leads to the
frequent formation of cracking defects when the thickness drastic
changes. Large meridional stresses, larger than the ultimate ten-
sile strength of the material, which are acting on these parts of
the sidewall, are the main reason for the rupture of the workpiece.
The meridional stresses in the sidewall are used to overcome the
 X. Cui et al. / Journal of Materials Processing Technology 233 (2016) 79–88 83

Fig. 9. Results of the simulation of the electromagnetic field generated by a simultaneous discharge of the three coils: (a) magnetic field lines; (b) Bx ; (b) By .

Fig. 10. Inverse bulging of the sheet: (a) for different combinations of discharge coils, (b) comparison between the simulated and experimental results.

deformation resistance of the flange region. In order to increase the
forming depth, it is necessary to reduce the deformation resistance
of the flange region. Therefore, two approaches have been adopted:
(1) reducing the friction force between the blank flange area and
the die; (2) the application of a large force on the sheet metal flange
to induce a material flow toward the die hole. As a result, hydro-
mechanical deep drawing technologies have recently seen a rapid
development.
Siegert et al. (2000) pointed out that hydro-mechanical deep
drawing is an advanced flexible sheet metal forming method, which
is based on the use of a liquid as the force transmission medium
instead of a rigid die forming load. During the forming process,
the liquid will flow between the sheet metal and the die to pro-
duce liquid lubrication, which can reduce the friction in the blank
flange area. Nakamura and Nakagawa (1987) proposed a hydraulic
counter-pressure deep drawing method assisted by a radial
pressure. The liquid in the liquid pool is pumped to the edge of
the sheet blank through a certain bypass, which allows to apply
a radial pressure on the blank edge to increase the material flow
and to significantly improve the sheet’s resistance to rupture. How-
ever, the higher liquid chamber pressure can cause the sheet to
break in the dangling region formed during the initial stage. Liu
et al. (2010) therefore proposed a hydrodynamic deep drawing
method combined with an independent radial pressure. In addition
to the liquid pressure in the chamber, an independent liquid pres-
sure was applied to the sheet end. When the liquid pressure in the
chamber was fixed at 2 MPa, the minimum sheet thickness could
be increased from 0.77 to 0.83 mm by increasing the independent
liquid pressure from 20 to 35 MPa. In addition, many scholars paid
much attention on the mechanism of pre-bulging during hydrome-
chanical deep drawing. Lang et al. (2004) investigated the effect of
pre-bulging pressure and pre-bulging height on hydromechanical
84 X. Cui et al. / Journal of Materials Processing Technology 233 (2016) 79–88

Fig. 11. Effect of moving the punch down to straighten the inverse bulging region.

deep drawing. The results show that the bending and unbending
effect will harden the sheet around the punch nose, which will
be very helpful in preventing the occurrence of fracture. The pre-
bulging height will be helpful in making the sheet cover the punch
nose earlier so that the friction between the punch and the blank
can prevent fracture here. Lang et al. (2012) analyzed the effect
of pre-bulging on sheet hydroforming process to form a box with
unequal height and flat bottom. The results show too high or too
low pre-bulging pressure and pre-bulging height are not helpful
for the control of wall thickness reduction. The failure can be avoid
under the condition of pre-bulging height is 90–100 mm and the
reasonable pre-bulging pressure is 1–3 Mpa. However, there are
some disadvantages when using the hydro-mechanical deep draw-
ing method in comparison with the traditional stamping process:
(1) a larger drawing force and blank holder force are required,
which can increase the equipment costs; (2) it is difficult to seal
in high pressure.
Up to now, there are two different methods which can be used
to generate a radial magnetic force at the sheet end, as illustrated in
Fig. 1. In Fig. 1(a), the coil is placed at the region corresponding to the
sheet end. This method has been proposed in a Chinese patent (Lin
et al., 2013). Recently, Lai et al. (2015) introduced a new method,
which is based on the addition of a radial driving coil. The radial
driving coil is also located at the sheet end. In comparison with
the conventional EMF process, the new method allowed to increase
the forming depth from 8.44 to 20.28 mm. The material at the sheet
flange could be pushed into the die hole during the forming process.
However, at the same time, the distance between the coil and the
sheet end increased during the forming process, which significantly
reduced the magnetic force at the sheet end, resulting in a lower
forming efficiency.
In contrast, in Fig. 1(b), the coils are located above and below
the sheet, which can also generate a radial pressure at the sheet
end. This method is named reconnection electromagnetic launch
system and widely used in electromagnetic guns, electromagnetic
launch and magnetically levitated trains. Tang (2010) established
a dynamic model of reconnection electromagnetic launch system
using ANSOFT, and analyzed the effect of circuit parameters and
the model structure on reconnection launch. He found that the
reverse force generated on sheet during launch, and the reverse
force decreases with the decreases in forward thrust. Based on the
principle of reconnection electromagnetic launch, Cui et al. (2014b)
firstly proposed a new forming method, denoted as incremental
electromagnetic-assisted stamping (IEMAS) with radial magnetic
pressure, to draw a deep cylindrical cup. This method com-
bines traditional stamping, electromagnetic sheet forming and the
electromagnetic launch technology. 3D simulations were per-
formed to describe the forming principle, and the results have
shown that the new method can be used to increase the inward
material flow, and decrease the reduction in thickness in the
regions most susceptible to rupture. However, so far, there have
been no experimental results validating the theoretical calcula-
tions. In addition, the forming process showed in the literature (Cui
et al., 2014b) is similar with the hydro-mechanical deep drawing
with pre-bulging, but it is clearly a novel technology.
In this study, a forming device with discharge coils was designed
and manufactured to verify that the combination of the IEMAS
method with a radial magnetic pressure can obtain deeper cycli-
cal cups than the quasi-static stamping process. Experiments were
conducted to determine the maximum forming depth by varying
the sequence of punch movements and electromagnetic forming
steps. Then, numerical 3D models were employed to gain a better
understanding concerning the deformation mechanism induced by
those forming steps.
2. Experimental
2.1. Experimental set-up
Fig. 2 shows pictures of the real forming apparatus and 3D geom-
etry models. The EMF equipment used in the current experiments
was manufactured by the Huazhong University of Science and Tech-
nology. The maximum discharge energy which can be provided by
the system is 100 kJ. Fig. 2(a) and (b) shows a schematic diagram
and a photographic image of the forming apparatus, respectively.
A more detailed schematic illustration and the dimensions of the
forming apparatus are provided in Fig. 2(c). The forming system
includes three types of discharge coils, which are denoted as Coil 1,
Coil 2 and Coil 3, respectively. Coil 2 and Coil 3 are located at the
blankholder and the die, respectively. The section dimension of
the Coil 1, Coil 2 and Coil 3 are 2 × 4 mm, 3 × 6 mm and 3 × 6 mm,
respective. The bulging coil, Coil 1, is located at the die corner. The
magnetic force generated by the three coils can induce an inverse
bulging of the sheet blank at the die corner and induce a flow from
the flange edge toward the die hole. The forming principle was
described in detail by Cui et al. (2014b). The three coils are con-
nected in series to the discharge-generating device. Thus, the same
discharge current will flow through the coils. The coils were all
covered by a glass epoxy board to insulate the coil wires from each
other and improve the coil strength. Meanwhile, the glass epoxy
board which contains Coil 3 was manufactured into the die. The
diameter for the die hole and the die corner radius were selected
 X. Cui et al. / Journal of Materials Processing Technology 233 (2016) 79–88
Fig. 12. Variation of the radial displacement with time for the points A and B in Fig. 2.
Fig. 13. Simulation of the inverse bulging regions: (a) after the 1st coil discharge, (b) after the 2nd coil discharge, (c) after the 3rd coil discharge.
to 50 and 10 mm, respectively. Next, the glass epoxy board which
contains Coil 2 was manufactured into the blankholder. The gap
for the blankholder is 60 mm wide. The minimum and maximum
radius for Coil 2 and Coil 3 were 85 and 101 mm, respectively.
Coil 1 was inserted along the die corner radius. The minimum dis-
tance between Coil 1 and the center of the die was fixed at 55 mm.
For a more feasible follow-up analysis, two special points A and B
on the bottom of the sheet surface were selected. The position of
the two special points can be seen in Fig. 2(c).
Commercial Al alloy 5052-O sheets were used in the experi-
ments and as a model system for the simulations. The diameter
and thickness of the sheets were 200 mm and 1 mm, respectively.
The Poisson’s ratio is 0.3 and the density of the sheet mate-
rial is 2.75 × 103 kg/m3 . The material properties were determined
through tensile tests at room temperature, in which standard test
specimens with a thickness of 1.0 mm were used. The true stress-
strain equation for the 5052-O aluminum alloy is as follows:
␴y
= 474.6(ε + 0.01866)0.377
MPa
where  y is the quasi-static stress, and ε is the plastic strain.
In order to consider the effect of a high strain rate on the forming
process, the behavior of the viscoplastic material was modeled with
a rate-dependence law (Cowper–Symonds constitutive model) in
the ANSYS finite element analysis software, as shown in Eq. (2). Yu
et al. (2010) investigated the occurrence of a homogeneous radial
deformation during electromagnetic compression and introduced
the variable R as the ratio of the tube length to the coil length.
They obtained a critical value, 0.93 ≥ R ≥ 0.92, which corresponds
to a uniform radial deformation. In their study, a good agreement
between the predicted and the experimental data was found. Thus,
the Cowper–Symonds constitutive model [Eq. (2)] could be used
85
to model the high speed forming process based on the following
equation:
m
ε̇
 = y (1 + ( ) ) (2)
P
where  is the dynamic flow stress,  y is the quasi-static stress
(as calculated through Eq. (1)), ε̇ is the strain rate, P = 6500 s−1 and
m = 0.25 are specific parameters for the aluminum alloy.
In this work, discharge energy of about 20.87 kJ (at a discharge
voltage of 14 kV) was applied. The variation of the current flowing
through the coil with time is shown in Fig. 3, as measured using a
Rogowski coil.
2.2. Experimental design
To prove that the new method presented in this paper can be
used to manufacture deep cylindrical cups, two different forming
(1) processes were designed:
Experiment 1: The three coils were discharged once and then
the punch was moved down until the sheet broke. This forming pro-
cess can be described as “Preforming – coil discharge – stamping”.
This experiment was used to determine the increase in forming
depth, which was defined as to h , by coils discharge in one time.
Experiment 2: After the three coils were discharged, the punch
was moved down by a certain distance to straighten the bulged
sheet. Alternately, the coils were then discharged again and the
punch was moved down again, until the sheet eventually broke.
This second forming process can be described as “Preforming – coil
discharge – stamping – coil discharge – stamping, and so on” The
distance the punch was moved down after each coil discharge was
set to h .
86 X. Cui et al. / Journal of Materials Processing Technology 233 (2016) 79–88
Fig. 14. Variation of the inverse bulging shapes with the number of coil discharges.
2.3. Experimental results
Fig. 4 shows the sample after quasi-static stamping when the
blank-holder force was fixed at 36,000 N. The necking phenomenon
was observed at the sheet corner when the punch was moved down
by 19 mm. When the punch was moved further down, the sheet
eventually broke. The maximum forming depth was determined to
be 19.3 mm for quasi-static stamping. The diameter of the sheet
decreased from 200 to 191 mm.
(1) Experiment 1
To demonstrate that the new method can greatly improve the
drawing depth, the preforming depth was set to 17.8 mm, which
is very close to the maximum forming depth of 19.3 mm. The dis-
charge parameters were as follows: the discharge voltage U was
set to 14,000 V and the capacitance C to 213 ␮F. To avoid the
occurrence of sheet wrinkling during the coil discharge, the blank-
holder force was set to 75,000 N. The sample obtained through
preforming (17.8 mm) and the sample obtained after a single dis-
charge of the three coils are compared in Fig. 5 to illustrate the
inverse bulging region. It can be found that the sheet corner
radius corresponding to the die corner decreased from 10 to about
6.5 mm.
Fig. 6 shows the resulting samples obtained when the punch
was moved down by different heights after the coil discharge at
14,000 V. The forming depths were 18.8, 19.8 and 20.8 mm after
the punch was moved down by 1, 2 and 3 mm, respectively. If the
punch was moved down by 4 mm, the sheet broke. The maximum
forming depth was determined to be 21.8 mm for a coil discharge
at 14,000 V. Since the maximum drawing depth was 19.3 mm for
quasi-static stamping, this corresponds to an increase in form-
ing depth due to a single coil discharge by h = 2.5 mm. Thus, the
forming depth could be increased by 13% by a single coil dis-
charge.
(2) Experiment 2
To further increase the drawing depth, the punch was moved
down by h = 2.5 mm after the coil discharge. Then, alternately,
the coils were discharged (U = 14,000 V) again and the punch was
moved down again by h = 2.5 mm, until the sheet eventually broke.
Fig. 7 shows the maximum forming depth was thereby determined
to be 25.3 mm after the coils were discharged three times. This
corresponds to an increase in forming depth by 31% if the coils
are discharged three times. The diameter of the sheet decreased
from 191 mm for quasi-static stamping to 184 mm for the combined
multi-step forming process. This shows that the coils discharge can
induce a flow of the sheet material from the flange area toward
the die hole, which is the reason for the increased forming depth.
Therefore, it is feasible to obtain a cup with large height to diameter
ratio using IEMAS with radial magnetic pressure than the tradition
stamping.
3. Numerical simulation of the IEMAS with application of a
radial magnetic pressure
Fig. 8 shows the finite element model established for the IEMAS
with application of a radial magnetic pressure. The ANSYS/EMAG
software was used to calculate the magnetic force acting on the
sheet. The electromagnetic field model consists of the far air region,
the air region, the coils and the sheet. The far air region, the
sheet and the coil were meshed into eight-node elements with
the SOLID97 element type. The air region was meshed into tetra-
hedrons with the SOLID97 element type. A detailed simulation
strategy was provided by Cui et al. (2014a,b). Fig. 8(b) shows the
resulting sample after deformation caused by moving the punch
downwards by 17.8 mm as simulated using the ANSYS/LSDYNA
software. The diameter of the sheet decreased from 200 to 192 mm
during deformation. To increase the calculation speed, the die and
the holder were treated as rigid bodies. During the forming pro-
cess, the die was considered to be fixed and different forces were
assumed to be acting on the blankholder to avoid sheet wrinkling
during the different forming stages. Contact conditions were con-
sidered between the die and the sheet as well as between the sheet
and the holder. For the simulation process, the calculation time for
the EMF step was set to 1 ms, whereas the calculation time for the
punch movement was set to 20 ms.
Based on the deformed sheet profile shown in Figs. 8 (b), 9 (a)
shows the results of the simulation of the electromagnetic field
generated by a simultaneous discharge of the three coils. The cylin-
drical coordinate system is used in Fig. 9 to describe the distribution
of magnetic flux on deformed sheet. This shows the x and z coordi-
nate in Fig. 8 (b) corresponding to the radial and axial coordinates
in Fig. 9(b) and (c) show the distribution of the radial magnetic
flux and the axial magnetic flux on the sheet’s upper surface, bot-
tom surface and for an intermediate layer, respectively, when the
three coils are discharged simultaneously. In the sheet region cor-
responding to the die corner, the radial and axial magnetic flux both
gradually decrease from the outer surface to the inner surface due
to the skin effect. In the sheet flange area, at a distance between
70 and 96 mm from the center of the sheet (as shown in Fig. 9(b)),
the radial magnetic flux is close to 0 in the intermediate layer. The
radial magnetic flux on the upper surface and the corresponding
radial magnetic flux on the bottom surface are equal in magnitude,
but point in the opposite direction. Therefore, there is no radial
magnetic flux in the sheet region at a distance between 70 and
96 mm from the center. The axial magnetic flux rapidly increases
when the distance to the center increases from 93 to 96 mm. The
maximum of the axial magnetic flux on the upper surface, the bot-
tom surface and in the intermediate layer was calculated to 6.6, 6.6
and 8.1 T, respectively. The axial magnetic flux will produce radial
magnetic pressure acting on the blank end, as shown in Eq. (3). The
 X. Cui et al. / Journal of Materials Processing Technology 233 (2016) 79–88
Fig. 15. Variation of the equivalent plastic strain with time.
radial magnetic pressures on the upper surface, the bottom surface
and in the intermediate layer at the sheet end are 17.3, 17.3 and
26.1 MPa, respectively.
B2z
Pr =
2r 0
where Pr is the radial magnetic pressure, Bz is the axial magnetic
flux, r is the is the relative magnetic permeability of the alu-
minum alloy, 0 is the represents the magnetic permeability in
a vacuum. In this, the r and 0 are set to 1 and 4␲ × 10 − 7 N/A2 .
1 T = 1 N/(A × m).
Based on the deformation results presented in Fig. 8(b), the
inverse bulging of the sheet under a magnetic force correspond-
ing to a discharge voltage of 14,000 V was studied, and the results
are shown in Fig. 10. As illustrated in Fig. 10(a), it was found that
there is no inverse bulging if only Coil 1 is discharged or if Coil 2
and Coil 3 are discharged simultaneously. The maximum inverse
bulging height was calculated to be about 0.95 mm if the three
coils are discharged simultaneously. Fig. 10(b) compares the sim-
ulated and experimental results. At a distance between −70 and
−58 mm from the center of the sheet, the experimental result is
greater than the simulation result and the maximum error is about
0.4 mm.While, at a distance between −58 and −51 mm from the
center of the sheet, the simulation result is greater than the exper-
imental result and the maximum error is about 0.47 mm.
Considering the simulation results presented in Fig. 10(b), the
punch was then moved down to straighten the inversely bulged
sheet region. The bulged region can be made to closely fit to the
shape of the die if the punch is moved down by about 1.64 mm.
Fig. 12 shows the variation of the radial displacement with time
for the points A and B in Fig. 2 after the three coils were discharged
three times and the punch was moved down four times. As known,
the material at point A will be moved away from the sheet cen-
ter and the material at point B will be moved closer to the sheet
center during the stamping process. The smaller the radial displace-
ment for point A and the greater the radial displacement for point
B, the smaller the reduction in thickness and the larger the drawing
depth. The following results were obtained: (1) In the time interval
from 0 to 20 ms, points A and B will move farther away from and
closer to the sheet center during the preforming step, respectively.
(2) The sheet is deformed during each of the three coil discharge
processes corresponding to the time interval from 20 to 21 ms, 41
to 42 ms and 62 to 63 ms, respectively. The radial displacement at
point A decreases by about 0.068, 0.067 and another 0.067 mm
after the first, second and third coil discharge, respectively. This
may be because a radial compressive force generated by Coil 1 acts
on the sheet region corresponding to the punch corner. The radial
87
displacement at point B decreases by about 1.23, 1.03 and 0.9 mm
after the first, second and third coils discharge, respectively. This
shows that the radial force acting on the sheet end generated by
Coil 2 and Coil 3 can induce a material flow from the sheet flange
toward the sheet center during each of the coil discharge processes.
(3)
(3) After the coils were discharged three times, the punch has been
moved down by 2.5 mm three times during the time interval from
21 to 41 ms, 42 to 62 ms and 63 to 83 ms, respectively. In the time
intervals from 21 to 34.1 ms, 42 to 52.3 ms, and 63 to 72.1 ms, the
radial displacement at the points A and B remained almost constant,
whereas the radial displacement at points A and B increased in the
time intervals from 34.1 to 41 ms, 52.3 to 62 ms and 72.1 to 83 ms.
Because the punch is moved down at a constant speed in the time
interval from 21 to 41 ms, a time of 34.1 ms corresponds to height of
about 1.64 mm by which the punch has been moved down. Accord-
ing to the simulation results presented in Figs. 11 and 12, it can be
concluded that there is no plastic flow at the points A and B before
the inversely bulged sheet region is completely straightened. In
addition, the radial displacement at point A after 36.4 ms is equal
to the displacement after 20 ms, which corresponds to the moment
just before the coil discharge. At 36.4 ms, the punch has been moved
down by about 1.93 mm. In addition, in companion with the initial
sheet diameter is 200 mm, the deformed sheet diameter after three
times coils discharge is reduce to 184 mm (200 − 8 × 2 = 184 mm).
Fig. 13 shows that the elements of the model corresponding to
the inverse bulging regions are the elements with numbers from
5060 to 5068, 5059 to 5066, and 5058 to 5064 after the 1st, 2nd
and 3rd coil discharge, respectively. This shows that there exists
an overlap region which is affected by both of two consecutive
discharges. This will cause the sheet to harden after the next coil
discharge. Then, the sheet bulging height will be smaller than after
the first coil discharge, as shown in Fig. 14. In addition, new mate-
rial will flow from the sheet flange to the region corresponding to
the die corner after each of the coil discharges. This ensures that the
sheet does not become too thin in a certain region, and contributes
to the increase of the drawing depth.
Based on the results presented in Fig. 13, the elements with
numbers between 5062 and 5063 are all inversely bulged after the
coils have been discharged three times. Fig. 15 shows the variation
of the equivalent plastic strain at the elements 5062 and 5063 dur-
ing the forming process. The equivalent plastic strain was found to
increase during each of the coil discharge processes. There exists
a special time interval during which the punch moves down to
straighten the inverse bulging region. The equivalent plastic strain
will change and increase with time if this special time interval
is exceeded. Based on the results in Figs. 12 and 15, the equiva-
lent plastic strain at inverse bulging region has no change before
88 X. Cui et al. / Journal of Materials Processing Technology 233 (2016) 79–88
the sheet straightened completely. This leads to there no radial
displacement of point A and B before the sheet straightened com-
pletely.
4. Conclusions
This paper proposes a new forming method denoted as incre-
mental electromagnetic-assisted stamping (IEMAS) with radial
magnetic pressure, which combines the traditional stamping
method, electromagnetic forming and an electromagnetic propul-
sion set-up. During the coil discharge, a material flow from the sheet
flange toward the die hole is induced by the magnetic force. Then,
the punch is moved down to straighten the inverse bulging sheet
region to realize the deep forming of a cylindrical cup. The main
conclusions of our study are as follows:
1) Experiment results: compared with traditional stamping, the
forming depth could be increased by 13% when the coils were
discharged once, whereas the forming depth could be increased
by 31% and the sheet diameter after deformation could be sig-
nificantly reduced if the coils were discharged three times. This
shows that the new forming technology allows to increase the
radial displacement at the sheet end and that the sheet form-
ing depth can be significantly enhanced by applying multiple
discharges.
2) Simulation results: a radial magnetic force, acting on the sheet
end and pointing toward the die center can be generated by
locating the coil at the end of the sheet. An equivalent plas-
tic strain is generated in the inverse bulging region, and the
radial displacement between the points A and B point will be
changed after the sheet is completely straightened. In addition,
new material will flow from the sheet flange toward the corner
of the die corner after each coil discharge. This ensures that the
sheet does not become too thin at certain positions. Thus, the
new method was demonstrated to increase the drawing depth
of aluminum alloy sheets.
Acknowledgments
This work was supported by the National Natural Science
Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 51405173 and 51175201),
“one-hundred young talents” project of Guangdong University
of Technology (No. 220413124), the Major Sate Basic Research
Development Program of China (973 Program, Grant No.
2011CB012802) and the research grant for doctorate from Hubei
University of Arts and Science and the Co-Innovation Center of
Hubei Province of Auto Parts Manufacture Equipment digitizing
(hbuas201513).
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