Investigation of sheet metal forming using rubber pad

this study first looks at some practical issues about rubber pad forming RPF process this will include results of few parts made for experimental purposes using this process parts are investigated in terms of surface quality and dimensional accuracy some experimental issues regarding the rubber size and the container dimensioins and their effect on the formed part are also presented one of the main advantages noticed during the experiments is the fact that the same rubber with no changes in dimensions can be used for a vast vvariety of parts in the same size range the paper with then look at the theoretical issues of the process the main aim in theoretical in vestigations is finding a computer model which is able to simulate the process and therefore to find the right design for the tooling set. finite element method FEM is used to predict both rubber and blank behavior during the process