Research on formability in multi-point forming with different elastic pads

A strip steel pad with a polyurethane board pad is suggested to improve the quality of multi-point die forming. In this work, the formability of four different forming processes, namely without a cushion, using a polyurethane pad, using a strip steel pad, and using a strip steel pad with a polyurethane board, was compared via numerical simulations and experiments. The results show that using a strip steel pad with a polyurethane board in multi-point die forming can effectively improve the stress and strain of the blank and suppress the defects of dimpling, straight edge, and wrinkling. This work demonstrates that the use of the strip steel pad with a polyurethane board in the multi-point forming process can improve the sheet forming conditions and quality.