Application of Electromagnetic Forming as a Light-Weight Manufacturing Method for Large-Scale Sheet Metal Parts

Abstract

Electromagnetic forming (EMF), due to its advantages of light-equipment, single-side die, improved formability, reduced wrinkling, lower spring-back, and so on, is high potential for shaping large sheet metal parts in aviation and aerospace industries, which are generally relative expensive and difficult to be formed with conventional process. By exploiting the potential benefits of EMF, the required forming cost can be reduced, and the forming quality can be improved. Until now, however, the EMF of large sheet metal is still under-developed, which is highly attributed to the limited forming capability of the present equipment and the lack of a systematic design methodology for the process. In recently, we developed an EMF process that capable of shaping large sheet metal parts with light-weight equipment, and has successfully applied this process for manufacturing ellipsoid shaped aluminium alloy parts with 1378 mm diameter. To realize the light-weight of the proposed process, two newly–developed devices are highlighted. In this paper, the forming performance of the process are experimentally evaluated for AA5083 and AA2219 sheet workpieces, in terms of die fittability, thickness distribution, and radial material flow distribution. Furthermore, the comparisons of the proposed process with several other related forming processes are conducted to identify the advantages of the proposed process.