Improved Tribotesting for Sheet Metal Forming

A new tribotester has been developed to characterize the friction conditions in sheet metal forming applications. The basic principle for the tribotester is parallel strip drawing. This apparatus is an improvement on conventional test setups in that it offers controllable speed and normal load during experimenting, a tool size that is variable over a wide range, and direct force measurement to allow the calculation of friction coefficients without using internal material deformation. These features increase the efficiency of the testing procedure when developing new tooling concepts within the sheet metal forming industry.