In many industrials field, especially in the automotive sector, there is a trend toward lightweight constructions in order to reduce the weight and thereby the CO2 and NOx emissions of the products. An auspicious approach within this context is the substitution of conventional deep drawing steel by precipitation hardenable aluminum alloys. However, based on the low formability, the application for complex stamping parts is challenging. Therefore, at the Institute of Manufacturing Technology, an innovative technology to enhance the forming limit of these lightweight materials was invented. The key idea of the so-called Tailor Heat Treated Blanks (THTB) is optimization of the mechanical properties by local heat treatment before the forming operation. An accurate description of material properties is crucial to predict the forming behavior of tailor heat treated blanks by simulation. Therefore, within in this research project, a holistic approach for the design of the THTB process in dependency of the main influencing parameters is presented and discussed in detail. The capability of the approach for the process development of complex forming operations is demonstrated by a comparison of local blank thickness of a tailgate with the corresponding results from simulation.
Electrodeposition is an advanced synthesis technique which involves the creation of a coating or free-standing material through an electrolytic process. Organic additives such as saccharin have been frequently used in electroplating operations to moderate deposit growth rates and to control film quality. In the present study, plating of Nickel without additives has resulted in a sub-microcrystalline microstructure and a <110>-fibre texture in growth direction. Structural units in form of groups of grains possessing a common <110>-zone axis in growth direction and low-Σ relationships between them have been found in the microstructure by use of EBSD. Upon annealing, grain growth sets in. However, the structural units and the texture are preserved up to 550°C. This means that the structural units stabilize the microstructure; there is no orientation change when grain growth occurs (e.g. by twinning). The low-Σ boundaries of the structural units are described in detail and texture development upon annealing is discussed in connection with results from previous studies on Ni and Ni-alloys of different initial texture.
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