Formability of Metals

Sheet Metal Formability

• Formability refers to the ability of sheet metal to be
formed into a desired shape without necking or
cracking. Necking is localized thinning of the metal that
is greater than the thinning of the surrounding metal.
Necking precedes cracking.

• From the metallurgical perspective, the formability of a

particular metal depends on the metal’s elongation,
which is the total amount of strain measured during
tensile testing. A metal with a large elongation has
good formability because the metal is able to undergo
a large amount of strain (work) hardening.
 Strain Hardening
• Strain hardening results in an increase of the load-carrying capacity
of a metal as it deforms. It also prevents strains from being localized
during forming, so the deformation is uniformly distributed
throughout a particular section of the material that is exposed to a
specific set of forming stresses. As a result, each localized region of
the metal thins uniformly during the forming process.

• The load carrying capacity of the metal as it deforms is opposed by

the reduction in cross-sectional area of the metal as it thins. There
is a maximum load where the increase in stress due to the decrease
in the metal cross-sectional area becomes greater than the increase
in the load-carrying ability of the metal due to strain hardening.
• Necking begins at this point as the metal starts to thin more in a
localized region. Any additional deformation is concentrated in the
necking area, while the loads in the surrounding areas decrease.
• Strain hardening (also called work-hardening or cold-
working) is the process of making a metal harder and
stronger through plastic deformation. Strain hardening
reduces ductility and increases brittleness. e.g. Cold-
working can be easily demonstrated with piece of wire
or a paper clip. Bend a straight section back and forth
several times. Notice that it is more difficult to bend
the metal at the same place. In the strain hardened
area dislocations have formed and become tangled,
increasing the strength of the material. Continued
bending will eventually cause the wire to break at the
bend due to fatigue cracking.
Hardening of a material with deformation – results
from interaction and multiplication of dislocations
during plastic deformation. With increasing
dislocation density the mean free path decreases,
as the average spacing scales as the inverse of the
square root of dislocation density (ρ⊥−1/2). A heavily
cold-worked metal typically reaches a dislocation
density of about 1015–1016 m−2. The primary
disadvantage of a strain-hardened material is its
inability to be used at higher temperatures, where
recovery would soften it.
Cupping Test
• The sheet to be tested is clamped between the sheet
holder and the die and formed with a hardened ball punch.
This process is continued at a specified speed until a fine,
continuous crack appears in the sheet. The distance
travelled by the ball punch to the crack is referred to as the
indentation value "IE" (in mm) and represents an important
quality feature of the tested sheet metal.

• This fast and inexpensive type of testing is often used in

incoming goods inspection and - without long sample
preparation - directly in the production process.