99IBECC-26

Analysis of Clamping Mechanism for Tailor Welded Blank Forming

Brad Kinsey, Nan Song, and Jian Cao
Northwestern University

Copyright 1999 Society of Automotive Engineers, Inc.

ABSTRACT
Tailor welded blanks (TWBs) offer an excellent opportunity to reduce manufacturing costs, decrease vehicle weight, and improve the quality of auto body stampings. However, tearing near the weld seam and wrinkling in the die addendum often occurs when a traditional forming process is used to fabricate this type of blank. Cao and Kinsey [1] proposed a modification to the stamping process where a mechanism would clamp on the weld line during the deep drawing process to improve the formability of TWBs. Critical to the success of this proposed modification is the ability of the clamping mechanism to perform its intended function and avoid creating adverse effects in the forming process. In this paper, experimental results and numerical simulations verify the ability of the clamping mechanism to hold the weld line in place during forming and not severely deform the blank in the area of the clamping mechanism.

[7] and has continued to climb. Fabricating an entire spaceframe chassis from Aluminum provided Audi with a weight savings of 200 kg [8], and an Aluminum chassis Ford Taurus, named Synthesis 2010, provided a reduction of 450 kg in the vehicles weight [5]. The Synthesis 2010 demonstrates a disadvantage of Aluminum however as it is estimated that the sticker price for the vehicle would increase between $2000 to $3000 due to the higher cost of Aluminum compared to steel. As potential vehicle efficiency gains through technological advances diminish though, substantial reductions in weight, such as those obtain from Aluminum body components, will be necessary to continue to increase fuel economy levels [3]. A concern however is that reductions in the weight of automobiles will adversely effect the crashworthiness of the vehicles [3,4]. It is estimated that for every 60 kg weight savings, the fuel economy increases by 0.5 mpg [5]. Consequently, in order to increase the average fleet fuel economy from 27 mpg to 40 mpg, once a proposed level for the year 2000, substantial weight would need to be eliminated from automobiles severally decreasing the crashworthiness of the vehicle. Therefore, in order to meet CAFE requirements through weight reductions, a means to cost effectively improve the fuel economy that will not detrimentally effect the crashworthiness of the automobile needs to be developed. A promising solution to this quandary is through the use of Tailor Welded Blanks (TWBs). TWBs are blanks where different sheets of material are welded together prior to the forming process so the automobile designer is able to "tailor" the location in the stamping where specific material properties are desired. These material differences can be in the strength of the sheets, either through different thicknesses or grades, or in the coating, for example galvanized versus ungalvanized [9]. Figure 1, from the Auto/Steel Partnership manual on TWBs [10], shows an exploded view of an automobile body with components that currently are TWBs or could possibly be converted. The major benefits of TWBs are exactly what are required to successfully meet CAFE requirements without adversely effecting other aspects of the automobile. These are: 1) decreased vehicle weight from the elimination of reinforcements and the overlap necessary for spot welding; 2) improved crashworthiness due to the increased stiffness of laser and mash seam welds compared to spot welds; and 3) reduced

INTRODUCTION
Prompted by the 1973 oil embargo, the United States Congress enacted the Energy Policy and Conservation Act in 1975, which established a Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standard for the vehicle fleets of automakers. Today, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) also considers greenhouse gas emissions, which lead to global warming, and the nations need to conserve energy when it sets the level of the CAFE requirement. The CAFE standard was instrumental in more than doubling the fuel economy level for automobiles from 1973 to 1988 from an average of 14.2 mpg to 28.6 mpg[2]. These fuel economy gains were obtained through technological advances to produce a more fuel-efficient automobile and by weight reductions through part optimization and the increased use of plastics and other lighter metals to replace steel components. One of the popular choices for steel substitution to reduce weight is Aluminum. Besides being light weight, Aluminum also has additional benefits such as recyclability, corrosion resistance, and a high strength to weight ratio [6]. From 1990 through 1995, the amount of Aluminum per vehicle increased by 2.3 to 3.6 kg annually

manufacturing costs due to fewer forming dies, elimination of downstream spot welding operations, and reduced scrap. In addition, TWBs also improve dimensional accuracy and corrosion resistance of the assembled body component. While the weight and manufacturing cost savings from TWBs alone may not be enough to obtain the required improvements to meet CAFE standards while offsetting potential cost increases, these benefits will be a step in the right direction to achieve these requirements.

strengths or thicknesses are welded together, the deformation of the process will be concentrated in the weaker material causing the weld line to move. To address this problem, more material flow-in is allowed for the stronger material thus decreasing the strain in the weaker material. This can be accomplished by varying the profile of drawbeads, if utilized in the process, or by decreasing the binder force in the die addendum of the stronger material, as would be possible if the process had a segmented binder [19] or independently controlled mechanisms, such as nitrogen cylinders, generating the binder force [20]. Cao and Kinsey [1] proposed another method for increasing the formability of TWBs. In their proposed process, a mechanism will clamp on the weld line during deep drawing to prevent weld line movement and assure a deformation concentration in the weaker material does not occur. This clamping mechanism will move in sequence with the punch ensuring that the clamping force is applied to the TWB during the forming process. Figure 2 shows a 2D schematic of the proposed process modification with hydraulic cylinders serving as the clamping mechanism. While this figure only shows one set of opposing cylinders, as many sets as necessary could be incorporated in the process to improve the formability of TWBs.
hydraulic cylinder

Figure 1. Exploded view of TWB components [10]. There are formability concerns associated with TWBs however due to material changes in the weld and in the Heat Affected Zone (HAZ) adjacent to the weld. Most of the current applications in industry involve steel TWBs. With steel TWBs, the weld is stronger but less ductile than the base material leading to reductions in the elongation of approximately half that of the base material for both the longitudinal and transverse directions to the weld line [11, 12, 13]. Due to the potential for additional weight savings, Aluminum is also being considered for use in TWBs and is utilized in this research. Currently, the interest for Aluminum TWBs is in less structural components such as deck lids and hoods [14]; however, the door inner has also been identified as a potential Aluminum TWB component [14, 15, 16]. Aluminum 6111-T4 has properties allowing it to be not only weldable but also formable [17, 18]. Therefore, it has been identified as a potential Aluminum TWB material and is used in this research. According to Stasik and Wagoner [17], the elongation of this Aluminum alloy could be reduced by 20% and 75%, longitudinal and transverse to the weld line respectively. The substantial elongation reduction transverse to the weld line is caused by material softening in the HAZ. Therefore, care must be taken in developing an application for Al 6111-T4 TWBs to assure that tearing failures do not occur in the material. To address the concern of reductions in elongation longitudinal to the weld line, a common TWB design practice is to locate the weld line such that the reduced elongation along the weld line is not large enough to cause failure [10]. Transverse strains create another concern in TWB forming. If blanks with different
tailor welded blank weld line punch

upper binder ring lower binder ring

hydraulic cylinder

Figure 2. Schematic of proposed process modification [21]. Simulation results in Kinsey et al. [21] demonstrated the potential success of this process modification for a part similar in geometry to a door inner. Critical to the success of this proposed process is the ability of the clamping mechanism to hold the weld line while not creating any detrimental effects in the process. While strength of material calculations were carried out in their initial work to assure the ability of the hydraulic cylinders to perform the clamping function and resist yielding and buckling, further simulations results are presented here as well as experimental results to evaluate the performance of the clamping mechanism. In particular, these investigations show that the clamping mechanism will not adversely deform the blank during the clamping process, and the material near the clamping area will not tear due to the stress concentration created. In addition, further details for the specific clamping mechanism which will be incorporated in future forming experiments is given. This research paves the way for

implementation of the proposed process modification to improve the formability of TWBs.

INITIAL STUDY OF PROPOSED MODIFICATION

Since a door inner is one of the most popular applications of TWBs and has been identified as a potential component for Aluminum TWBs, a part geometry similar to this was chosen for research by Kinsey et al. [21]. Figure 3 shows the geometry of the punch used in this research as well as the locations of the weld line and the different material thicknesses, which constituted the TWB. Figure 4 shows the location of the two circular hydraulic cylinders, i.e. clamping mechanisms, on the Slanted and Vertical Weld Lines used to reduce weld line movement and decrease the deformation concentration in the thinner material. The proposed process modification allows for additional material utilization improvements since a more complicated weld line geometry, here the two linear weld line segments shown in Fig. 4, can be used as opposed to a single straight weld line currently found in door inner TWBs, Fig. 1. The maximum in-plane reaction force due to the clamping mechanism was found in Clamping Area 2 and had a magnitude of 34.4 kN. Table 1 summarizes the excellent results obtained in this initial study comparing simulations where no clamping mechanism was utilized, the Free Case, and those where a clamping mechanism was incorporated in the simulations, the Fixed Case. Further details regarding this research can be found in Kinsey et al. [21]. As was previously mentioned, strength of materials analysis of the clamping mechanism was conducted in the initial study [21]. Due to concerns of the ability of the originally proposed hydraulic cylinder to produce enough clamping force and to resist yielding in the process, a new hydraulic cylinder was sought for use in this application. A Miller HV Hydraulic Cylinder, with a bore diameter of 101.6 mm and a maximum pressure of 223.4 bar, is able to produce more force than the originally proposed hydraulic cylinder and has a larger rod diameter, 63.5 mm, to withstand stresses in the 1 process. Therefore, the Miller hydraulic cylinder will be used in subsequent experiments. Table 2 summarizes the results of the clamping mechanism analysis from Kinsey et al. [21] with the substitution of the new Miller HV Hydraulic Cylinder. The safety factors for the three criteria, ability to resist weld line movement, withstand stresses in the hydraulic cylinder, and resist buckling, were significantly improved thereby increasing the confidence in the proposed clamping mechanism. However, additional analysis of the clamping mechanism, including experimental results, were necessary in order to further validate the ability of the clamping mechanism to perform its intended function.

Figure 3. Punch geometry, location of initial weld line position, and material gauge from Kinsey et al. [21].

Figure 4. Location and size of clamping mechanisms.

EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS
Kinsey et al. [21] proposed using a rubber end, or pad, on the hydraulic cylinders in order for the clamping mechanism to conform to the weld line without deforming the sheet metal; however, no details were given for the material and a friction coefficient was arbitrarily assumed. Natural rubber materials would not be able to withstand the 62 MPa of pressure, the 98.3 kN force determined in Kinsey et al. [21] divided by the area produced by the 45 mm circular rod end, required to prevent weld line movement. Therefore, a neoprene impregnated, fiber layered material, which can withstand 69 MPa in compression, was identified to attach to the ends of the hydraulic cylinders. A static friction test was performed on this neoprene impregnated material to determines its coefficient of friction. A block of material was placed on a sheet of Aluminum alloy and the slope of the sheet was varied until this block just began to slip. The friction coefficient then was determined by taking the tangent of this angle. The test was replicated eight times using different sheets of metal and neoprene impregnated material or both the dry, non-lubricated, and lubricated states. The lubrication was a water based solid lubricant. Using this method, the average friction coefficients for the dry samples were 0.43 and 0.53 depending on the rolling direction, longitudinal and transverse respectively. For the lubricated samples, rolling direction did not have as large of an effect on the coefficient of friction, and the average friction coefficient value was 0.34. In their original study, Kinsey et al. [21] assumed a friction coefficient of 0.35; therefore, their simulation results are

This rod diameter is larger than the 45 mm clamping area diameter used in the simulations. However, since there will be a rubber end attached to the hydraulic cylinder, which could still have a diameter of 45 mm, the simulation results from Kinsey et al. [21] are still valid.

close to the lubricated case which is what would be expected in an actual mass production forming process.

VARIABLE Max. Movement of Slanted Weld Line Max Movement of Vertical Weld Line Max. Eng. Strain Transverse to Slanted Weld Line Max. Eng. Strain Transverse to Vertical Weld Line Max. Eng. Strain Longitudinal to Slanted Weld Line Max. Eng. Strain Longitudinal to Vertical Weld Line Max. Percentage of Thickness Reduction Max. Punch Depth before 6.25% Eng. Strain Transverse to Weld Line

FREE CASE 20.5 mm 20.8 mm 25.5%

FIXED CASE 3.1 mm 5.7 mm 5.2%

% IMPROVEMENT 84.9% 72.6% 79.6%

metal specimen was an Aluminum alloy with a comparable yield strength to Al 6111-T4, which was specified in Kinsey et al. [21]. Based on this yield strength, the width and thickness of the specimen were determined in order to assure no plastic deformation would be produced in the material at the maximum 34.4 kN reaction force found in the Clamping Area 2 of initial simulations [21]. That is, the maximum reaction force would be reached prior to material failure.

37.1%

7.4%

80.1%

19.7%

4.7%

76.1%

-3.3%

-2.1%

36.4% Figure 5. Picture of experimental set-up to simulate clamping mechanism. Only preliminary experiments to validate the test method have been conducted to date due to the need to have the tensile test machine calibrated. A clamping pressure of approximately 7.2 MPa, based on calculating the force through the bolt of the C-clamp due to the applied torque, was administered to the lower portion of the specimen. With this pressure applied to a dry specimen, the peak force reached by the tensile test machine was 5.3 kN. (Prior to the final draft of this paper, this experiment will be conducted again with a load cell in the set-up to obtain a more accurate measurement of the simulated clamping force and a clamping pressure of 62 MPa will be applied. Our expectations are that clamping on the weld line with this large pressure will not allow the material to move during the experiment and thus the forming process. This experiment will also demonstrated the ability of the neoprene impregnated, fiber layered material to withstand the shear load which will be encountered in the proposed process.) Finally, compression tests on the neoprene, fiber layered material were performed to provide material data for numerical simulation. Figure 6 shows the stress versus strain curve of the material from which Elastic Moduli and Poissons ratios for various strain states were determined. These tests confirmed the ability of the material to withstand the necessary stresses that will be produced in the process.

28.4% 55.4 mm

6.1% 84.7 mm

78.5% 52.9%

Table 1. Simulation results from Kinsey et al. [21].

CLAMPING MECHANISM CRITERIA Resist Weld Line Movement Elastic Analysis Buckling Analysis

LIMIT

ACTUAL

SAFETY FACTOR 1.84 1.66 2.93

181.1 kN 365 MPa 288 kN

98.3 kN 220 MPa 98.3 kN

Table 2. Analysis of clamping mechanism results. Using a tensile test machine, an experiment was implemented to simulate the clamping process. Figure 5 shows a picture of the experimental set-up. A C-clamp was rigidly mounted to the base of the tensile test machine and used to apply a clamping force to the bottom portion of a sheet metal specimen. Samples of the neoprene impregnated material were placed inbetween the C-clamp and the Al sheet to test the ability of this material to withstand shear loading. The upper portion of the specimen was clamped in the jaws of the tensile test machine which when pulled would imitate the reaction force produced in the clamping area. The sheet

60 50 Eng. Stress (MPa) 40 30 20 10 0 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% Eng. Strain (%)

In the first step of the simulations, a uniform downward pressure of 62 MPa was applied to the top of the upper clamping pad with the bottom of the lower clamping pad fixed to produce the clamping force. Once clamped, a uniaxial displacement of 2 mm on each sheet thickness in opposing x-directions was applied to stretch the TWB. The transverse strain values adjacent to the weld line away from the clamping mechanism produced by these displacements were 0.65% in the 2 mm material and 6.91% in the 1 mm material. This is typical of TWB forming where the thinner material undergoes more deformation than the thicker material along the weld line. These strain values are approximately the same as the transverse strains to the vertical weld line in the original simulations of the door inner geometry forming; therefore, the new model accurately imitates the original simulations in the vertical weld line area. 2 mm thickness 70 135

Figure 6. Stress versus strain curve for neoprene impregnated material.

SIMULATION TESTS
Concerns exist that clamping on the weld line will have detrimental effects on the sheet metal, e.g. excessive deformation of the material caused by the large clamping force and tearing failure due to a stress concentration near the hydraulic cylinder. In order to examine these concerns, which were not considered in Kinsey et al. [21], simulations were conducted on the commercially available finite element software package ABAQUS/Standard. These simulations allowed the clamping mechanism, in this case just the clamping pads with an applied load, to be modeled as opposed to simply fixing the nodal displacements of elements in the clamping area of the blank, as was done in the initial work. Since clamping on the vertical weld line in Kinsey et al. [21] represented the most severe forming area along the weld line for the door inner part geometry, this region was the focal point of this simulation work. Here, the process was simplified to include sheets of material with different thicknesses clamped between rubber pads while being uniaxially displaced, stretched, perpendicular to the weld line. This condition is appropriate for the strain state found in Kinsey et al. [21]. Figure 7 shows the mesh and tooling geometry for this simulation work with the symmetry perpendicular to the weld line being used to reduce the computations. The blank was modeled using one layer of reduced integration four-node shell elements (ABAQUS type S4R) with a thickness of 2 mm and 1 mm for the left and right sides of the blank respectively and an overall TWB size of 135 mm by 70 mm. The material properties of the blank material were that of Al 6111-T4. The upper and lower clamping pads were modeled as half cylinders with a diameter of 45 mm, the same as was used in Kinsey et al. [21], and a height of 25 mm. The 560 eightnode brick elements (ABAQUS type C3D8) used in each clamping pad were given hypoelastic material properties which were determined from the physical testing of the neoprene impregnated material. The friction coefficient was again set to a value of 0.35 for the neoprene impregnated material on the Aluminum sheet, and no displacement was allowed for line A-B of the blank to produce the appropriate boundary conditions for the symmetry. A

45 mm z y B x Figure 7. Mesh and tooling ABAQUS/Standard simulations. geometry for 1 mm thickness

Figure 8 shows the sheet thickness distributions for both the a) 2 mm material and b) 1 mm material. Again, observe the deformation concentration in the thinner material as is evident when comparing the thickness reductions along the weld line for the 2 mm and 1 mm materials. Also, these plots show that the clamping force does not produce coining, or excessive thinning, of the material under the clamping mechanism. This is due to the ability of the neoprene impregnated material to deform under the loading. The largest thickness reductions occur outside of the clamping mechanism and are not excessive, 0.10 mm for the 2 mm material and 0.063 mm for the 1 mm material. A plot of the thickness values along section A-B, Fig. 9, shows how small these reductions are in comparison to the thickness of the blanks. To examine the concern of stress concentration leading to tearing failure around the clamping mechanism, the maximum and minimum principal strains for the elements surrounding the clamping area were evaluated. These values are plotted in Fig. 10 on a Forming Limit Diagram (FLD) with the Forming Limit Curve (FLC) for Al 6111-T4. All elements are well below the FLC; therefore, tearing failure is not a concern.

a) 35% Major Principal Eng. Strain 30% 25% 20% FLC 15% 10% 5% 0% -20% -10% 0% 10% 20% Minor Principal Eng. Strain Figure 10. Forming Limit Diagram for elements surrounding clamping area. Marginal Safe Zone

y x b)

CONCLUSION
y x Tailor Welded Blanks (TWBs) are an excellent means for automakers to advance towards meeting Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards while improving sheet metal stampings in general, e.g. the rigidity and the dimensional accuracy of the stampings. The benefits of TWBs necessary to meet CAF requirements are reduced vehicle weight, improved crashworthiness, and lower manufacturing costs. Cao and Kinsey [1] proposed a method to improve the formability of TWBs during deep drawing by clamping on the weld line with hydraulic cylinders. Numerical simulation results applying this proposed method for forming a part similar in geometry to a door inner were promising [21]. However, more analysis of the clamping mechanism was required to verify the hydraulic cylinders ability to perform the intended clamping function without detrimentally effecting the process or deforming the sheet metal. In this paper, experimental as well as simulation results demonstrate the potential of the clamping mechanism to meet both of these requirements. Also, numerical simulation results showed that the sheet metal would not be significantly deformed during the clamping process and that stress concentrations near the clamping mechanism would not be large enough to cause tearing failure. Finally, more concrete information regarding the clamping mechanism was provided such as the specific hydraulic cylinder which will be used and a neoprene impregnated, fiber layered material which will be attached to the end of the hydraulic cylinders to prevent sheet metal damage. These excellent results for the clamping mechanism provide confidence to move forward with implementation of the proposed process modification. Experiments will be conducted in the near future at Northwestern Universitys Advanced Materials Processing Laboratory (AMPL) to verify the formability improvements for TWBs.

Figure 8. Sheet thickness distribution for a) 2 mm half and b) 1 mm half of TWB.

2.5 2.0 Thickness (mm) 1.5 1.0 0.5 0.0 0 50 100 150 Distance in x-direction (mm)
Figure 9. Thickness plot of elements along section A-B.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
12.

This research was funded by NSF Grant DMI-9703249.

13.

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