Forming defects in aluminum alloy hot stamping of side-door impact beam

The forming defects, including thinning, rupture, wrinkling and springback, usually arising in producing a side-door impact beam, were investigated by trial and numerical simulation. A temperature-related constitutive model specific to the temperature range from 350 °C to 500 °C was established and used for the numerical simulation. The trial and numerical simulation were conducted to clarify the quantitative characteristics of forming defects and to analyze the effects of process parameters on the forming defects. Results show that the rupture situation is ameliorated and the springback is eliminated in the aluminum alloy hot stamping. The wrinkling severity decreases with increasing blank holder force (BHF), but the BHF greater than 15 kN causes the rupture at the deepest drawing position of workpiece. The forming defects are avoided with lubricant in the feasible ranges of process parameters: the BHF of 3 to 5 kN and the stamping speed of 50 to 200 mm/s.