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Experimental procedures and results of a benchmark test for springback are reported and a complete suite of obtained data is provided for the validation of forming and springback simulation software. The test is usually referred as the Slit-Ring test where a cylindrical cup is first formed by deep drawing and then a ring is cut from the mid-section of the cup. The opening of the ring upon slitting releases the residual stresses in the formed cup and provides a valuable set of easy-to-measure, easy-to-characterize springback data. The test represents a realistic deep draw stamping operation with stretching and bending deformation, and is highly repeatable in a laboratory environment. In this study, six different automotive materials are evaluated.

Dual Phase (DP) high strength steel is widely used in Europe and Japan for automotive component applications, and has recently drawn greater attention in the North American automotive industry for improving crash performance and reducing weight. In comparison with high-strength low-alloy (HSLA) steel grades with similar initial yield strength, DP steel has the following advantages: higher strain hardening, higher energy absorption, higher fatigue strength, higher bake hardenablility, and no yield point elongation. This paper compares the performance of DP and HSLA steel grades before, during, and after hydroforming. Computer simulation results show that DP steel demonstrates more uniform material flow during hydroforming, better crash performance and less wrinkling tendency.

A typical forming operation of chassis components (control arms, cross members, etc.) often involves edge stretching and/or hole expansion. As a result, the edge split is a common forming failure mode. To overcome this problem, Japanese and European automakers use stretch flange high strength (SFHS) steel due to its high strength and excellent edge stretch capability. Recently, SFHS steel has gained greater attention in North America and is currently being used for upper and lower control arm applications. This paper includes a discussion on general edge stretch issues in forming operations, including material data that demonstrate the higher stretch limit of SFHS steel as compared to other high strength steels. In a case study, SFHS steel is applied to a control arm and finite element analysis (FEA) is conducted to evaluate forming and structural performance.

Advanced high strength steels (AHSS), such as dual phase (DP) and transformation induced plasticity (TRIP) steels, have been increasingly used in automotive industry. One of the major advantages of AHSS is the excellent crash energy absorption capability. In this study, crash performances were evaluated for four AHSS including DP980, DP780, TRIP780 (780T), and TRIP590 (590T). Axial crush and bending crush tests were performed to evaluate the material crush performance. High strain rate tension test results for those materials were also presented. FEA analyses with parameter sensitivity studies were conducted including strain rate sensitivity effect, part geometry effects, welding models and forming effects. Good correlations between simulation and experimental data were achieved.

The tubular hydroforming process has been used to reduce the weight of body-in-white (BIW) components by consolidating parts and eliminating weld flanges. Electric resistance welding (ERW) is the primary joining method for hydroformed tubes made of mild steels and some conventional high strength steels. Due to recently introduced Advanced High Strength Steels (AHSS), such as dual phase and TRIP steels, laser welded (LW) tubes have also been considered for hydroforming applications, particularly for thin-wall, large-diameter tubes. In this study, LW and ERW tubes are evaluated in a free-expansion hydroforming process using various strength steels including AHSS. The LW tubes made from both DP590 and TRIP590 steels were successfully hydroformed to a 64% expansion ratio(the maximum for the die cavity), an improved performance over the ERW TRIP590 tubes. The ERW tubes made from C-Mn440 and lower strength grades were also free-expansion hydroformed successfully to the maximum die cavity.

Tubular hydroforming is being used extensively for manufacturing various automotive structural parts due to its weight reduction and cost saving potentials. The use of a thin wall advanced high strength steel (AHSS) tube offers great potential to further expand hydroforming applications to upper body components. In this study, numerical and experimental investigations are conducted on a free expansion hydroforming case using various AHSS thin wall tubes. The results are also compared with tubes made from conventional steels and different tubing processes. The appropriate use of the forming limit in hydroforming is also discussed. In numerical study, a new simulation method is developed and validated to handle tube material properties input. Good correlations to the experimental data have been obtained. The new method only requires the flat sheet stress–strain curves as the basic material property. Tube and weld properties are modeled as a pre-strained tubular blank.

Advanced high strength steels (AHSS), such as dual phase (DP) and transformation induced plasticity (TRIP) steels, have been used successfully for making light weight vehicles and their usage is growing. Now, the automotive industry is expanding the use of AHSS to higher strength levels for further mass reduction. In a 2003 SAE paper, the material and formability characteristics for such steels were presented for steel grades of DP980, high yield type DP780 (780YM), low yield type DP780 (780YL), TRIP780, and TRIP590. In this study, experiments were conducted to assess the formability of these high strength steels using a T-channel, which incorporates several different forming modes in automotive stamping. The feasibility of computer simulation technology for the formability analyses of AHSS is also addressed.

Traditionally, high-strength low-alloy (HSLA) steel is used for automotive vehicle weight reduction in the North American automotive industry. Dual phase (DP) high strength steel has gained great attention because it provides a combination of high strength and good formability. The main advantage of DP steel is the high ratio of tensile strength to yield strength, which provides more flexibility in stamping and higher energy absorption in a component crush event. This study compares the performances of DP and HSLA steel grades in stamping processes and component crush events, as shown in a typical automotive unibody inner rail. Simulation results show that DP steel offers more uniform strain distribution, improved formability, and better crush performance than conventional HSLA steel.