Magnetic pulse forming of smalls aeronautic pieces

Abstract

Stelia Aerospace is specialized in the forming of small (Lmax < 200 mm), medium (200 mm < Lmax < 1000 mm) and large (Lmin > 1000 mm) sheets for the aerospace industry. In order to diversify the production facilities of Stelia Aerospace we evaluated the capacity of the magnetic pulse forming to produce small parts. The material used is the aluminum alloy 2024-T4. The sheets used have a thickness of 1 mm, 2 mm and 1.6 mm. There are more than 100 references of small parts but they are all made up of a limited set of elementary geometries. These elementary geometries include: straight and interrupted straight fallen edges, convex and concave fallen edges, fallen edges holes and joggling. For each of these geometries we designed a specific inductor and die, we measured the geometric dispersions and checked the material health of the parts. At the same time, in order to facilitate tool design, we developed a numerical model in the LS DYNA computing environment. The dynamic behavior of the material was measured by dynamic compression tests on Hopkinson bar. The model was validated from the tests.