The Optimization of Blank Holder Gap Profile in Deep Drawing Process

Recently, the production of thinner products using deep drawing process is one of the most important needs in industries. It is known that the draw-ability of sheet metals is significantly affected by blank holder; hence, designing a new blank holder system which increases the efficiency of drawing operation, is of utmost importance. In our pervious studies, the concept of BHG profile, i.e. variation of BHG over punch stroke, was introduced and its effect upon the section thickness has been investigated. In the present research, it is shown that properly selected BHG profile can improve the section thickness of formed part and result in the drawing of deeper parts. A global method for the optimization of BHG profile has been devised. In this approach, the empirical model for the prediction of final minimum section thickness in terms of BHG profile was achieved by means of design of experiments and neural networks. In the next stage, the proposed model was implanted into a simulated annealing (SA) optimization procedure to identify a proper BHG profile that can produce the desired blank thickness. In this paper, ABAQUS finite element package has been used to gather FE data.

Keywords:

Deep drawing process , blank holder gap profile , optimization procedure , artificial neural network , simulated annealing algorithm