On tool steel, surface preparation, contact geometry and wear in sheet metal forming

Abstract: In sheet metal forming operations the life length of the production equipment islargely dependent on the wear of the tools that are in direct contact with the sheet.One form of adhesive wear where some sheet material gets transferred to the tool, alsoknown as galling, is the most common cause of tool failure. The transferred materialsticks firmly to the tool and will scratch subsequent sheets and increase friction, renderingthem anywhere from aesthetically unsightly to completely ripped apart. Withcareful combination of several parameters the tools production life can be significantlyextended. The surface preparation of the tools has a large influence on the tool life, thesurface has to be smooth and yet not without texture. It was shown in strip reductiontesting that the orientation as well as the depth of the surface texture left by polishinginfluenced the tool life and that a texture perpendicular to the sliding direction was toprefer. The geometry of the forming tool is also a parameter to take into account as itinfluences the tool life not only by changing the contact pressure but also in itself. Ina sliding against flat sheet test rig a lower contact pressure increased the sliding distanceto galling. When two different geometries were compared at the same contactpressure it was found that there was a difference in tool life. As to the tool itself thematerial it’s made of influences the wear rate and tool life. Different tool steels wasinvestigated in sliding wear against metal sheets; Vancron 40 performed better thanVanadis 6 and S290PM performed better than a AISI M2 grade steel.