The Optimal Parameters Design of Drawing for the Y Type Teeth Using Four Y-Slot Die-Wheel

Zipper manufacturer always requires Y type zipper to design clothes. To meet the huge global demand, the high-precision forming process is required to improve production speed and production accuracy. The basic component of Y type zipper is the metal Y type teeth. The poor design of drawing process without optimization will result in bad quality of products. The most common defects of Y type teeth drawing process included (1) the teeth size error caused zipper sudden opening, two rows of Y type teeth cannot be close together; (2) zipper does not pull smoothly, it needs more pull force; (3) too much residual material cause higher cost and poor performance; (4) unstable quality cannot reach the standard of high level zipper. This article uses the finite element method to simulate the drawing process of copper Y type teeth. Computer-aided analysis software ABAQUS CAE is applied to execute drawing process simulation analysis and to obtain the optimal design parameters of drawing. Based on the best modeling of the FEM prediction, the complicated relationships between the experiment drawing Y-slot die parameters and the max. deformed can be obtained, the max. deformed error is 7%.