Friction in Sheet Metal Forming Simulations: Modelling of New Sheet Metal Coatings and Lubricants

The quality of sheet metal formed parts is strongly dependent on the tribology and friction conditions that are acting in the actual forming process. These friction conditions are then dependent on the tribology system, i.e. the applied sheet material, coating and tooling material, the lubrication and process conditions. Although friction is of key importance, it is currently not considered in detail in sheet metal forming simulations. The current industrial standard is to use a constant (Coulomb) coefficient of friction, which limits the overall simulation accuracy. Since a few years back there is an ongoing collaboration on friction modelling between Volvo Cars, Tata Steel, TriboForm Engineering, AutoForm Engineering and the University of Twente. In previous papers by the authors, results from lab scale studies and studies of a door-inner part in Volvo Cars production have been presented. This paper focuses on the tribology conditions during early tryout of dies for new car models with an emphasis on the effect of the usage of new steel material coatings and lubricants on forming results. The motivation for the study is that the majority of the forming simulations at Volvo Cars are performed to secure the die tryout, i.e. solve as many problems as possible in forming simulations before the final design of the die and milling of the casting. In the current study, three closure parts for the new Volvo V60 model have been analysed with both Coulomb and TriboForm friction models. The simulation results from the different friction models are compared using thickness measurements of real parts, and 3D geometry scanning data of the parts. Results show the improved prediction accuracy of forming simulations when using the TriboForm friction model, demonstrating the ability to account for the effect of new sheet metal coatings and lubricants in sheet metal forming simulations.