Friction anisotropy of Aluminum 6111-T4 sheet with flat and laser-textured D2 tooling

Abstract Proper friction control during a sheet metal forming process can positively influences the quality of the final product. The effects of textured tooling surface and the rolling direction of the strip surface with respect to the sliding direction, the sliding velocity, and the contact pressure on friction coefficient were investigated in this study with Aluminum 6111-T4 sheet and D2 tool steel. A flat-on-cylindrical setup was used to measure the friction force by pulling a strip sample across a tooling sample. The tool steel has laser-textured micro wedge-shaped dimples. The results showed a reduction in friction coefficient by using a textured tool. In addition, in the tests, the relative motion direction parallel to the sheet rolling direction leads a lowest friction coefficient compared to other orientations.