In-Process Punching with Pressure Fluids in Sheet Metal Forming

Abstract The economical efficiency of metal forming procedures based on pressure fluids can be increased e. g. by integrating the additional (auxiliary) operation of punching into the metal forming process. The potentialities resulting from this proceeding are discussed exemplarily for a high pressure sheet metal hydroforming process. The present investigation is using the FE method for analyzing and optimizing various approaches to in-process punching on high pressure sheet metal hydroforming. Experimental tests are carried out in order to verify the different approaches.