Description:

Thinning Strain Analysis (TSA) and Circle Grid Strain Analysis (CGSA) are powerful tools to determine if your forming process and sheet metal choice are sufficiently robust to handle the inherent variations of metal properties. Properly done, TSA and CGSA can offer you valuable insight into the forming capabilities of your seleced sheet metal. Improper technique can lead you to make costly decisions.

The easiest way to check your measurements is to compare the thickness calculated from your circle-grid surface-strain measurements to thickness measurements made using an ultrasonic thickness (UT) gauge. But, there is so much more information you can get from your part and process with just thickness measurements!

TSA is easier to perform than CGSA and requires very little operator training. TSA can be performed on any formed part, without special preparation of the blank or tools before stamping, and it requires less stamping-plant involvement and assistance. Production stamping schedules are less likely to be disrupted when a TSA is needed, and TSA can be used when is it not practical to place circle grids on a blank— such as for parts stamped on a progressive die or in the central portion of a very large blank.

This class will describe how thinning strain analysis can be used in conjunction with - and as a replacement for - circle grid strain analysis. The steps to convert your TSA measurements to plot on a conventional CGSA FLD will be covered.

Description:

We test materials, both to anticipate behaviors during manufacturing and to compare properties among different types and grades. Getting reliable test results requires consistently applied procedures and properly calibrated equipment.

Tensile tests must be conducted using standardized equipment and procedures to ensure accurate and consistent results. To accomplish this, standards organizations publish sheet metal tensile test standards. These standards include:

• ASTM E8/E8M: "Standard Test Methods for Tension Testing of Metallic Materials"
• ISO 6892-1: "Metallic materials. Tensile testing. Method of test at ambient temperature"
• JIS Z2241: "Method of tensile test for metallic materials"

This course will help you understand tensile testing, stress-strain curves, and the meaning and importance of test parameters including:

• Yield strength,
• Tensile strength,
• Total elongation,
• Uniform elongation,
• N-value, and
• R-value

Description:

It is important for the metalforming professional to understand the steelmaking process. The making and rolling of steel determines how the workpiece will behave under forming, how it will respond to stress, and what the metal's strain characteristics will be.

Steelmaking is the process of melting iron and its components into a molten form and shaping it into slabs, beams, or billets at a foundry. After the foundry, the steel is transferred to a rolling mill where it is hot rolled or cold rolled to shape it into desired form and thickness. The mill may also do annealing to remove residual stresses and treat the product for corrosion resistance.

Steelmaking has undergone a number of changes in recent history to meet political and social demands and because of advances in technology. As you can imagine, foundry and milling operations require tremendous amounts of energy. As a result, emission of gasses and energy efficiency are issues the industry continues to address. Steelmaking byproducts also must be handled appropriately, Byproducts include slag, contact water, oil, grease, and mill scale.

Molten steel is produced in one of two types of facilities: an integrated steel mill using a blast furnace and a basic oxygen furnace or a "mini-mill" using an electric arc furnace. In either route, molten steel is solidified into a slab, and rolled down to the ordered thickness using controlled reductions at specific temperatures. Each step has some influence on the final properties.

This course introduces you to the significant aspects of steelmaking, rolling, and galvanizing. We cover the journey steel takes going from the liquid melt to your shop floor, including operations like:

• Steelmaking from raw materials or scrap
• Casting
• Hot rolling
• Cold rolling
• Annealing
• Galvanizing

Description:

If you’ve ever seen a Road Runner cartoon, you know that Wile E. Coyote tries everything to capture his prey, and often orders materials from the fictitious Acme Corporation. If any of these materials came with a Mill Certification Sheet and the Coyote took the time to read it, he might be spared the spectacular failures of his complex products – and eventually dine on Road Runner.

This Mill Cert, also known as a Certified Material Test Report, Mill Test Report, or simply a Cert Sheet, is part of the paperwork that arrives with a sheet metal shipment. The Mill Cert includes much more information than the name of the buyer and seller. If you know what you’re looking for, you can learn about some of the metal’s properties and predict how it will react in your facility.

The way sheet metal behaves during stamping is influenced by its tensile properties, chemical composition, grain size, and surface profile. Information about each of these may be included on the mill cert, providing traceability and assurance to the end user about the quality of the steel used and the process used to produce it.

Carefully examining an mill cert can help prevent expensive and time-consuming problems, maximizing uptime, and help with your root-cause analysis of stamping splits.

Students learn about the information that is typically contained on Mill Certifications. We discuss how retaining that information may be used to ensure that received coils meet your specifications, monitor success and issues with coils in production, and monitor variation in coil properties over time.