Page 30 - MetalForming June 2016

Lubricant Selection
Hoschouer used the setup, which included 16 tons of nitrogen blankhold- er force built into the tool, comple- mented by a Hyson 50-ton servo-con- trolled hydraulic cushion, to blind-test 24 different lubricants—synthetics and oil-based products from several sup- pliers. Over two days of testing, nearly 400 12-in. blanks were deep-drawn; materials tested were 2-mm-thick mild, HSLA and stainless steels, and 1.4-mm DP1180 (a duplex AHSS grade).
Bennett Tool built the ASTM-design iTool, which features eight tempera- ture sensors to monitor die tempera- ture during testing, a load cell in the die, and an FLIR thermal-imaging cam- era to capture part-temperature data during drawing.
“The test setup performed perfect- ly for deep-drawing of mild, HSLA and stainless steels,” says Hoschouer, “pro- viding a wide spread of data for the various lubricants. The extra tonnage from the servo-hydraulic cushion played a critical role in ensuring we
developed sufficient blankholder force. “However, with the AHSS material, the data is too clumped together to make complete evaluations,” he adds, “so we’ll be conducting further studies on AHSS, as well as on aluminum, using our inhouse 600-ton hydraulic press. It allows us to apply tonnage
throughout the entire stroke.”
In addition to tracking tool and part temperature during drawing, the test procedure also called for automated circle-grid analysis of test samples, using the Argus system, to evaluate strain and thinning; and manual meas- urement of the perimeter of each blank. “Ideally, we want the blanks to draw into the die, rather than stretch and thin,” Hoschouer says. “With this setup, we can correlate material movement to temperature while capturing strain and workpiece-temperature data. The better the lubricant the less thinning we get.”
Drum Roll, Please
The preliminary results are in, and
Hoschouer and his team have suc- cessfully narrowed the list of candi- date lubricants down to five. In early summer, Hoschouer expects to enroll those five lubricants in a full-scale test- ing program at one of Shiloh’s stamp- ing plants, on production parts (parts will be washed prior to shipping to the customer).
“We’ll test the five lubricants on an array of materials and parts,” Hoschouer says, “and get a better idea of which of the five lubricants actually makes a positive impact on our processes. We hope to narrow the list of finalists down to two or three lubricants that we eventually will move into wide- spread production.
“In fact,” Hoschouer continues, “some of the finalists actually per- formed very well on all of the materials we’ve tested—maybe not the best on all materials, but in the top five on all materials. If that holds up in full-scale testing, we might be able to get down to one or two lubricants.” MF
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28 MetalForming/June 2016
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