Effect of blank holder force control in deep-drawing process of magnesium alloy sheet

A circular cup deep-drawing process was investigated using a magnesium alloy material, which is the lightest practical material for use in manufacturing structural components. An improvement in the limiting drawing ratio (LDR) at 300 °C was observed, by controlling a variable blank holder force (BHF) during the process, in comparison with the constant BHF conditions. The reason for the improvement of the LDR is that the magnesium alloy material has a low F-value, which was obtained from tensile tests when it was warmed to the elevated temperature. When the experimental conditions are not appropriate, such as when BHF is high, the experimentally drawn cup fractured at the wall part (β-rupture). The LDR of the magnesium alloy sheet was improved using the BHF control technique and verified using a finite element method (FEM) simulation. It is confirmed that the FEM simulations behaved in a similar manner to the experiments, with β-rupture being observed during the fracture at the wall part.