Page 47 - MetalForming April 2015

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MetalForming/April 2015 45
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Last but not least, Friedman heaps praise on a new stamping lubricant it’s using. “We’re no longer using con- ventional oil-based lubricants com- mon to the steel industry,” he says, noting the growing need for deep-draw tight-radii forms with tightly controlled dimensions.
“We’ve switched to a hot-melt lube with a very low coefficient of friction for all of our aluminum stamping,” Fried- man shares. “It performs very well under high hydrostatic loads, and greatly enhances our ability to draw aluminum.”
One Fabulous Frame
Any discussion of the success of the new F-150 must include its high- strength-steel frame, responsible for 60 lb. of weight reduction—well ahead of the original 50-lb. reduction goal. So informs John Caris, chief integration manager in Ford’s chassis engineering department.
“There are more than 20 different frame variations for the new F-150,” Caris notes. “And, there are a few ‘firsts’ with this new frame, including the use of rollformed parts, and a patent-pend- ing stamped 12-corner crush horn. This part alone, stamped as two halves sub- sequently welded together, shaves as much as 8 lb. from each vehicle.”
A key enabler of the build flexibil- ity required is the use of a rollformed section (of 2.2- or 2.6-mm-thick high- strength steel) in the midrail. Ford cuts the section to length as needed along the rollforming line, and punch- es the required hole pattern. This roll- formed part and the new crush horn, as well as the addition of an eighth rollformed cross member (the previ- ous F-150 frame had seven cross members)—one of which is alu- minum—allowed Caris and his team to satisfy 150 specific requirements of the new frame.
“And, not only did we meet those requirements and surpass the origi- nal weight-reduction goal,” Caris says, “we also increased torsional stiffness by approximately 5 percent on many versions.” MF
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