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Experimental and numerical studies have been completed on the deformation behaviour of round AA6061-T6 aluminum extrusions during an axial cutting deformation mode employing both curved and straight deflectors to control the bending deformation of petalled side walls. Round extrusions of length 200 mm with a nominal wall thickness of 3.175 mm and an external diameter of 50.8 mm were considered. A heat treated 4140 steel alloy cutter and deflectors, both straight and curved, were designed and manufactured for the testing considered. The four blades of the cutter had an approximate average thickness of 1.00 mm which were designed to penetrate through the round AA6061-T6 extrusions. Experimental observations illustrated high crush force efficiencies of 0.82 for the extrusions which experienced the cutting deformation mode with the deflectors. Total energy absorption during the cutting process was approximately 5.48 kJ.

Automobile body panels made from advanced high strength steel (AHSS) provide high strength-to-mass ratio and thus AHSS are important for automotive light-weighting strategy. However, in order to increase their use, the significant wear damage that AHSS sheets cause to the trim dies should be reduced. The wear of dies has undesirable consequences including deterioration of trimmed parts' edges. In this research, die wear measurement techniques that consisted of white-light optical interferometry methods supported by large depth-of-field optical microscopy were developed. 1.4 mm-thick DP980-type AHSS sheets were trimmed using dies made from AISI D2 steel. A clearance of 10% of the thickness of the sheets was maintained between the upper and lower dies. The wear of the upper and lower dies was evaluated and material abrasion and chipping were identified as the main damage features at the trim edges.