Notch Shear Cutting of Aluminum Alloys

Researchers at the Institute of Metal Forming and Casting (utg) developed the method of notch shear cutting. It allows cutting of brittle high-strength materials, such as manganese-boron-steels, at room temperature without any burrs. Moreover, the cutting forces can be reduced significantly and thus, the stress on the cutting edge is minimized. In this work, notch shear cutting was transferred to ductile 5xxx and 6xxx aluminum alloys in order to improve the cutting surface characteristics and, mainly, to avoid burrs. Furthermore, a reduction of the cutting forces is relevant, especially for car body parts with long intersection geometries. Notches with different geometries were stamped into an initial sheet material on the top or bottom side along a defined line. Afterwards the notched sheets were cut with a conventional shear cutting process at room temperature and an open cutting line. The influence of the notch parameters and positions on the characteristic shear cutting surface appearances and the cutting forces compared to conventional shearing processes were investigated experimentally and by numerical simulations.