New punch design for the elimination of punch ejection load through manipulation of the elastic strain field in the punch nose

The extreme tribological conditions present during both the forward stroke and the punch ejection stroke of a backward cup extrusion process can adversely affect the quality of the extruded part and diminish the life of the punches. A novel punch design based on the segmentation of the extrusion punch into a main body and a nose cone insert is proposed to reduce or eliminate the pressure between the punch and work piece during the punch removal stroke. This is facilitated by manipulating the elastic strain field at the punch nose. With the aid of the finite element analysis, a parametric study on the segmented elastic punch assembly was carried out to establish optimal conditions and punch design guidelines. Experiments were carried out to determine the effectiveness of the segmented elastic punch. A significant reduction in the punch ejection load was observed along with a reduction in material pickup on the punch and galling on the surface of the part. The elastic deflection of the punch also allowed the researchers to discover that a significant amount of damage could occur during the punch ejection stroke.