Development of Precision Flange Forming Die for Sheet Metal

With the rapid development of mechanical manufacturing technology and numerous demands of different technique products and the applied industry, commercial products trend miniature and precision. In order to satisfy the demands of miniature and precision components, the precision forming technology which takes advantages of high mass production, low costs and stable quality is proposed. This paper develops the precision flange forming die for sheet metal. In the paper, the SUS304 stainless steel was adopted to enhance the structural rigidity. The hollow flange sheet is manufactured by precision forming processes. The forming height, the sheet thickness and the other geometry parameters are considered and the technologies of hole-flanging forming, pressing and forging are applied in this study. The CAE (Computer-Aid Engineering) simulation tool is adopted as a reference to analyze the feasibility of the proposed forming processes. Both simulated and manufactured results show that the proposed precision forming technique can be a reliable process for the production of precision hollow flange sheet.