Blank holding force control in panel stamping process using a database and FEM-assisted intelligent press control system

A database and FEM-assisted intelligent press control system was applied to sheet stamping process of trapezoidal panels. For applying the press control system to the stamping process of a non-symmetric shape, a radial assignment strategy of the process control line was proposed, and the average value of each process control line was employed as the entire process control value. In order to facilitate the verification procedure of the system, the concept of virtual processing was introduced. All the verification procedures were carried out using a combination of the virtual processing system and real experiments with a hydraulic forming simulator. Through the implementation of the simulator with the variable blank holding path obtained by the virtual database and FEM-assisted intelligent press control system, a high quality product was obtained with higher strength. Using the database and FEM-assisted intelligent press control system, the process control path was determined without assistance from an engineering expert, and high efficiency of our process control system was confirmed.