Page 17 - MetalForming April 2009

PMA Technical Conference
Hear American Trim’s director of research and development Steve Hatkevich speak about the firm’s commitment to research and development, and the progress it’s making with commercializing the high-velocity metalforming process, at the PMA Technical Conference April 26-28 in Cleveland, OH. For more information, contact Deanna Nwosu at dnwosu@pma.org; 216/901-8800.
funding from $9 million in grants dis- tributed by the Ohio Department of Development. American Trim’s direc- tor of research and development Steve Hatkevich describes the firm’s HVMF project:
“About 60 percent of the cost of a hydrogen fuel cell is the cost of the bipolar plate assembly. And it’s going to take 500 to 1000 plates to make one fuel-cell vehicle... Currently, produc- tion of one plate takes 15 min. because the process is not automated. To make the required number of plates per year, we’re building a line capable of making a plate every 6 sec.”
The firm plans to expand the process into a production environment within an existing facility in the near future. HVMF, which allows materials to form in their hyperplastic state and promotes uniform strain distribution, promises to suppress wrinkling compared to tradi- tional deep drawing, allowing deeper draws; the ability to design vehicle com- ponents with lower-cost materials due to improved formability with the process; reduced tooling costs; less reliance on lubricants; and improved control of springback.
“HVMF and large-component PVD are potential game changers,” says Swigard, adding that HVMF can be applied to conventional automotive components as well. “We’ve demon- strated high-velocity forming of a sill plate that reduced the number of oper- ations for forming and decorating from 26 to just six. Rather than using con- ventional transfer dies, we can form the part in one hit.” MF
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