Mechanical characterization of flow formed FCC alloys

Flow forming is an old, but still promising, sheet metal forming technique to produce thin-walled, high-precision cylindrical auto-components (i.e. carriers and clutch housings). In the present research, the flow forming process was carried out on some commonly used face centered cubic (FCC) metals to assess the effect of processing parameters on the mechanical responses of materials during flow forming. To this end, flow forming operation with thickness reduction of 70% was performed on 5052 and 6061 aluminum alloys, 70/30 brass, and pure copper. Mechanical responses of starting (as received) materials and flow formed parts, i.e. tensile strength, yield strength, elongation, work hardening rate, and work hardening exponent were discussed for each material separately and the results were compared. Also, flow formed materials were compared in terms of stacking fault energies and twinnability and the effects of these were considered on flow formability of materials and their flow behavior in flow forming operation.