Springback determination of sheet metals in an air bending process based on an experimental work

The air bending process can be erroneously considered as an easy understanding process without complication, but this is a false judge. Several parameters have to be considered in order to avoid precision problems: material and process parameters. Among them, springback phenomenon has a significant role. Traditionally, springback has attempted to be expressed in handbook tables or in springback graphics. But both ways of giving expression to springback amount show shortcomings. This paper presents new springback graphics for air vee bent sheet metal parts. The developed experimental procedure has two main stages. First, the material identification by means of tensile test has been done. Next, bending tests for several specimens of different thicknesses have been carried out.Hence, springback values for different bending angles (among 22° and 90°) of aluminum and stainless steel specimens were obtained and converted into graphics for the air bending process. Moreover, the most of the theoretical influences related to springback has been ascertained and they are discussed in detail. The obtaining of these new graphics enlarges the data that a sheet metal designer can use either to obtain the final geometry values of an air bending part or to design of bending dies.