Using the finite element method for achieving an extra high limiting drawing ratio (LDR) of 9 for cylindrical components

Deep drawing of cylindrical cups with high limiting drawing ratio (LDR) is relatively difficult. Annealing is a further operation, when added to the forming process, costs extra time and money. In this work, the cylindrical cups from brass sheet were made with only limited number of annealing during drawing steps, for the case having limiting draw ratio (LDR) of 9. This LDR was about 2 times higher than previous works. Cups having 4 mm inner diameters (IDs) and 70 mm in length were drawn successfully. The process was simulated by the ABAQUS/explicit finite element (FE) code and experimental tests were carried out following finite element analysis. Parameters affecting the process were studied and the suitable value for each stage LDR obtained by FE analysis. Then, a comparison between experimental results and finite element analysis were made. Also, the wall thickness distributions obtained using the finite element method (FEM) were compared with results from several tests and the results using the FEM approach were thus verified.