Incremental electromagnetic-assisted stamping (IEMAS) with radial magnetic pressure: A novel deep drawing method for forming aluminum alloy sheets

A new forming method denoted as incremental electromagnetic-assisted stamping (IEMAS) with radial magnetic pressure is proposed in this paper, which was adopted for the deep drawing of a cylindrical cup. In comparison with the traditional stamping process, the forming depth could be increased by 31% after three consecutive coil discharges. A 3D finite element model was built to determine the reason for the increase in forming depth. We found that a radial magnetic force is generated at the sheet center when placing the coil at the end of the sheet, which will produce a material flow from the sheet flange to the region corresponding to the corner of the die after the coil discharge. This ensures that the sheet does not become too thin in a certain region. Therefore, deeper cylindrical cups can be manufactured by IEMAS with radial magnetic pressure. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.