Institute for Forming Technology and Forming Machines Institute News and events News
Start of the IGF project "Hot stamping process to influence the fatigue strength of sheets with thicker walls".

Start of the IGF project "Hot stamping process to influence the fatigue strength of sheets with thicker walls".

In cooperation with the Institute for Plant Engineering and Fatigue Analysis (IMAB) at the TU Clausthal, the IFUM further developing a configuration of the hot stamping process in order to help increase efficiency by reducing the weight of commercial vehicle chassis. The main applications are component elements of the ladder frame and crash-proof battery housings. Substitution with thinner, hot stamped components offers enormous weight-saving potential in this area. Due to the long service life of commercial vehicles, the fatigue resistance of the materials used is of overriding importance. In order to fully exploit the potential of hot stamping, knowledge and optimisation of the fatigue behaviour is therefore of particular importance. The hot stamping of sheets with larger wall thicknesses ≥ 5 mm offers the possibility of adjusting tailored properties, not only in the plane of the forming blank but also across the cross-section of the sheet thickness by modifying the temperature evolution of the process. In this way, hard surface layers with residual compressive stresses in combination with a more ductile core can be produced in a targeted manner, which can counteract crack initiation or propagation. In this context, the use of resistance rapid heating is to be qualified as part of the process development in order to optimise the life cycle assessment already during component manufacture.