A numerical and experimental investigation to the optimization of the thermoplastic reinforced sheet deep drawing

Process design in thermoplastic reinforced sheet deep drawing involves many areas, such as determination of die design, selection of process parameters and initial blank shape design. Initial blank design in the composite sheet deep drawing refers to the design of blank initial geometry and it can help the produced part to be fabricated without defects such as earing which means the flange with varying length, and also it can reduce material consumption in addition to improving the formability. In this study for numerical investigations, a computational program based on finite element (FE) analysis, which is performed using ABAQUS/Explicit, that uses sensitivity analysis for design of initial blank configuration in deep drawing process has been constructed. The sensitivity approach modifies the position of the boundary nodes in initial blank with the aid of desired target shape, to make the boundary contour of deformed sheet coincide with the target contour. For experimental studies, a mold has been constructed to produce a part with a hemispherical dome which has a flat flange around. By assuming the target drawn sheet be with a uniform flange in length, the initial blank shape is designed using developed program. Finally a thermoplastic reinforced blank with designed shape prepared and deformed in the constructed mold with a hemispherical punch. The deformed blank had acceptable flange length uniformity and there was a good agreement between FE analysis and experimental results.