Predicting plastic deformation and work hardening during V-band formation

V-band clamps are manufactured using a cold roll forming process consisting of six passes which plastically deform an initially flat strip by bending to produce the band's V-section. In this paper a new method of validating numerically predicted plastic deformation in a cold formed metal strip is presented. Tensile testing of samples of the band's material was used to obtain a direct link between plastic strain and work hardness of this particular material. Using this correlation, the equivalent plastic strain (PEEQ) values predicted by finite element simulations were converted into hardness values. These values were compared to experimental work, in which samples of each pass of the roll forming process were taken to determine the work hardness in the cross section of the V-band using a micro-hardness machine. The error in strain predicted by the numerical method and hardness obtained by testing was found to be between 0.4% and 16.9%. This error was mainly due to uncertainty in material properties and the accuracy of the measurement technique. Compared to the more classical approach of measuring strain distribution with strain gauges, this method is more precise and accurate, as it is able to pick up even small changes in strain distribution. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.