Abstract
Using the cold stamping process, aluminum tailor rolled blanks (TRB) have been recently used to manufacture automotive parts to reduce the body weight of cars. However, when used to achieve uniform mechanical properties, the conventional method of aluminum TRB leads to low formability and excessive springback, and it also requires additional heat treatment because of thickness difference and work hardening during the rolling process. This study proposed an integrated hot forming and heat treatment process to improve the formability and dimensional accuracy of Al6061 TRB. In this process, the heated sheet was immediately formed after the solution heat treatment, and was then rapidly quenched within cold dies. The practicality of this process for sheet forming of Al6061 TRB was evaluated by performing the Erichsen and V-bending tests. Furthermore, hardness was measured to confirm the uniform mechanical properties of the Al6061 TRB achieved after artificial and natural aging. The integrated hot forming and heat treatment process was also compared with the conventional forming method in terms of formability, dimensional accuracy, and mechanical properties, which demonstrated the feasibility of this process for Al6061 TRB.
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Kim, JH., Lee, CJ., Lee, SB. et al. Integrated hot forming and heat treatment process on Al6061 tailor rolled blank. Int. J. Precis. Eng. Manuf. 18, 127–132 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12541-017-0016-5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12541-017-0016-5