Indian Journal of Engineering & Materials Sciences

Vol. 20, June 2013, pp. 219-224

Processing animation simulation and FEM analysis of multi-stage cold forging of

stainless automotive battery fastener
Ming-Chao Sun*, Gow-Yi Tzou & Liang-An Zheng
Department of Mechanical Engineering, National Kaohsiung University of Applied Sciences, Kaohsiung City, Taiwan
Received 26 November 2012; accepted 21 February 2013
The study proposes processing animation simulation, FEM analysis, and experimental verification of multi-stage forging of
stainless automotive battery fastener. The processing animation simulation can provide the realistic motions for each pass to realize
how to work for the front punch and die. Stainless automotive battery fastener requires high dimension precision and narrow
tolerance. In order to save the developing cost and accumulate more production design experiences, CAD/CAE technology has
been used in multi-stage cold forging with five stages to shorten our developing cycle time. In this paper, the CAD drawing is made
by Inventor 3D software, then import the STL file to DEFORM-3D software to do the settings of pre-process and simulation
analysis. Effective stress, effective strain, velocity field, and forging force have been shown in this study. Finally, the actual
manufacture measurement results compares with simulation datum to verify the analysis acceptance. After comparing the FEM
simulation results with actual forming measurements, the error rate of washer diameter is increased in fourth stage. Although the
measurement results are still in tolerance, the future work is to decrease the error rate through optimizing the mold design of fourth
stage. The verification is performed to reduce the error rate according to the research method proposed in the study. On the other
hand, the mold life in the actual forming is found to be easily damaged in the fifth stage. In the future, production improvement
should be done through modifying the design of mold and die for the third and the fourth stages, the life of mold and die is explored
to reduce the forging force in the fifth stage.
Keywords: Processing animation simulation, Stainless automotive battery fastener, Multi-stage cold forging, 3D animated
simulation, FEM Simulation

Recently there are many studies and analysis which

focus on the development of FEM and the progress of
CAD/CAE software. Many applications used the FEM
simulation to predict the forming design and the setup of
simulation parameters. In 1989, Kobayashi et al.1
applied the FEM to metal forming analysis. In 2001,
Conor MacCormack and John Monaghan2 used FEM
software on multi-stage cold forging Hex Head Mold
analysis, and successfully increased the tool life and
decreased the effective stress 17.7%. Three different
kinds of FEM commercial softwares were compared by
Bil et al.3, and the simulation and experiment have been
done to obtain the optimal result. Nader Asnafi4 used
FEM to analyze the cold forming mold and to find the
crack factors through experiments. In the aerospace
industry, MacCormack et al.5 used FEM software to
carry out the aerospace bolt forming simulation of Ti6Al-4V material; the damage position and value can be
determined. Kang et al.6 studied the dimple forming
simulation of thin metal plate; the non-symmetrical
dimple forming simulation has been to compare with
standard parts dimensions. There are many studies that
______________
*Corresponding author (E-mail: vincent@racingpoint.com.tw)

applied the FEM methodology to find out the reason of

bad and the best tool life and some studies to get the best
forming process to reduce the cost7-13. Some studies also
tried to follow this way14-17 to obtain the simulation data
and actual production measurements that feedback to
FEM software to improve the simulation process. In
2009, Tzou et al.18 proposed the first presentation on 3D
screw forming process animation which made by
AutoCAD Inventor CAD software. Figure 1 shows the
actual forming parts and 3D parts in each stage. This
active animation could help people to know the
assembly of molds, actions and position as well. The
main reason to build up the animation model is to train
people in the fastener industry. It clearly shows the
action in every stage and also every mold assembly. In
this study, the processing animation simulation of
stainless automobile battery fastener has been
constructed in Fig. 2.

Fig. 1Actual parts versus 3D parts

INDIAN J ENG. MATER. SCI., JUNE 2013

220

3D Animation Simulation
The 3D models are constructed by Inventor 3D
software, and they are including shearing mold,
punch, forging die and PKO for every stages. The
carbide material is used to produce die core and punch
core in order to increase the tool life and wear resistant.
Die shell can protect the carbide die core and reduce
mold cost as well. The assembly drawing and
explosion drawing in fifth stage are shown in Fig. 3.
Simulation process

The automotive battery fastener is made to be used in

the car battery, with a view to having the corrosion
prevention requirement the SUS 302 stainless material
without heat treatment is used. The fastener is sealed in
the liquid lead, so the tolerance of parts dimensions
requires very strictly. The pass schedule shows in Fig. 4.
The five passes are planned to produce the automotive
battery fastener.
First of all, the 3D CAD model is built up and
transferred it to STL format, then import the STL files to
DEFORM-3D software. The cylinder compression test
of SUS 302 stainless is performed to get the flow stress
and a lot of compression test have been performed to
obtain the frictional factor (m) in realistic forming.
Youngs modulus (E) and Poissons ratio () needs to be

provided. Once preprocess has been set up, the

calculation process would be done. Finally, the
simulation results which including effective stress,
effective strain, velocity field, forging force etc in every
stage can be determined. Then the comparisons of the
dimensions between actual part and simulation
measurements are carried out to realize the error.
von Mises rule

Generally, von Mises yielding criterion19 is adopted

as material plastic rule. It provides the relationship
between the material yield condition and 3D stress
states. All three axial principal stresses can be expressed
as the effective stress shown in Eq. (1).

Fig. 2The processing animation simulation of stainless

automobile battery fastener

Fig. 3The explosion drawing in the fifth stage

Fig. 4Automotive fastener dimensions in every stage

SUN et al.: STAINLESS AUTOMOTIVE BATTERY FASTENER

221

Fig. 7The fifth forming stage before and after forging

where and
are the effective stress and effective

strain rate; ij' is the deviatoric stress tensor and
ij is
the strain rate tensor.
Cylinder Compression Experiment
Fig. 5SUS302 materials flow stress and experimental result

The cylinder made of SUS302 stainless rod with 9.6

mm diameter and 14.22 mm height is used to do
compression experiment. The ratio of height to diameter
cannot exceed 1.5 for avoiding the buckling. After
experiment Eqs (5)-(8) can be used to calculate
engineering stress, engineering strain, true stress and
true strain. The flow stress with power law is expressed
as =935.4580.438. Figure 5 shows SUS302 materials
flow stress and experimental result.
0 =

P
A0

0 = r = h h0 = ( h0 h f ) h0
= 0 (1 r )

... (5)
(6)
(7)

= ln(h0 h f ) = ln(1 r ) 1

Fig. 6Friction calibration curve with experiment

[(
2

1
2 2

1 2 ) + ( 2 3 ) + ( 3 1 )

(1)

von Mises pointed out while the effective stress

reaches the materials yield strength value Y, then this
material starts occur plastic deformation. Eq. (2) is
expressed as:
1
1
(2)
=
[( )2 + ( )2 + ( )2 ]2 = Y
2

... (8)
Where 0 is engineering stress, 0 is engineering strain, r
is reduction ratio, is true stress and is true strain.
In order to obtain the frictional factor so that more
close to the real friction during forming, DEFORM-2D
establishes friction calibration curve and realistic
compression result compares the curves to obtain the
real friction. From Fig. 6, it reveals that real frictional
factor is around m = 0.12 which the most close to the
experimental result.

Basic plastic rules

FEM Simulation

The manufacturing process of automobile battery

fastener can be analyzed by the commercial finite
element analysis software. The basic plastic rule can
be expressed as:
Compatibility equation:

3D CAD model for five stages are imported into

DEFORM 3D software as the pre-process datum. The
rigid-plastic FEM analysis is used. Figure 7 show the
forming stage before and after forging in fifth stage; the
left diagram is before forging and the right diagram is
after forging. This stage can show the final product
shape.
The research development and mold-dies design of
multi-stage forging is very important to the metal
forming industry. Therefore, the analysis conditions
need to be accurate (Table 1).

ij =

1
(ui , j + u j ,i )
2

(3)

Constitute equation:
ij' =

2

ij
3

... (4)

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INDIAN J ENG. MATER. SCI., JUNE 2013

Fig. 9Effective strain distributions

Fig. 8The effective stress distributions
Table 1Analysis conditions in FEM simulation
Parameters
Set up value
E
193 GPa
Material

0.25
SUS302

935.450.438
m
0.12
Mesh number
80000
Software
Vo
345 mm/s
Deform-3D
displacement
0.7 mm/step

Results and Discussion

Figure 8 shows the effective stress distributions for
each stage. The final product can be made in the fifth
stage; the maximum effective stress happens around
the flange. The effective strain distributions for each
stage are demonstrated in Fig. 9. It is noted that the
maximum effective strain happens around the flange.
The velocity fields for each stage are shown in Fig. 10
can realize whether the material flow is normal or not
and also can check the material happens over flow.
The forging force versus stroke in each stage is
shown in Fig. 11 and the actual forging force in each
stage is shown in Table 2. From Table 2, the forging
force in the fifth stage is largest, 229 kN is needed,

Fig. 10Velocity field distributions

SUN et al.: STAINLESS AUTOMOTIVE BATTERY FASTENER

the total forging force is 542.3 kN; the fraction to total

forging force is 42.2%.
Because the flange is thin, the deformation is not
easy to generate, the forging force is increased very
fast. Comparing with the rating machine forging force
800 kN, the total forging is under 800 kN, so the
simulation is successful to manufacture the final
product.
Experimental verification

After simulation, the punch, mold and dies have

been made to perform the realistic experiment. The
forging parts produced in each stage are shown in
Fig. 12. The dimensions of actual forging parts in

223

each stage can be measured to compare with the

simulation dimensions and calculate the error. The
simulation parts in every stage are shown in Fig. 13.
After compared with the actual and simulation
measurement in every stage, the datum analysis and
the error are shown in Table 3. In the final stage
which shown in Table 3, except the diameter D3 and
thickness L3 of flange errors are around 7% to 8.5%,
others all lower than 3%. The dimension error D3 in
third stage is 2.28% and become 7.35% in fourth
stage. It might be the reason that head forming is open
Table 2Forging force in every stage (kN)
First stage
Second stage
Third stage
Forth stage
Fifth stage
Total force

78.6
69.4
115.3
50.0
229.0
542.3

14.5%
12.8%
21.3%
9.2%
42.2%
100%

Table 3Dimensions comparisons between actual parts and

simulation in the fifth stage
Actual measurement
(mm)

Simulation
measurement
(mm)
Error (%)

Fig. 11The forging force versus stroke in each stage

Fig. 12The actual forging parts produced in each stage

L
29.4
D1
8.4
L
29.3
D1
8.3
L
0.2
D1
1.4

L1
15.3
D2
9.8
L1
15.1
D2
9.7
L1
0.9
D2
0.7

L2
8.8
D3
18.7
L2
9.1
D3
17.3
L2
2.7
D3
8.4

L3
2.5
HW
12.5
L3
2.3
HW
12.4
L3
7.9
HW
0.6

Fig. 13The 3D parts in each stage

L4
2.8

L4
2.8

L4
0

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INDIAN J ENG. MATER. SCI., JUNE 2013

die forming so that the error is getting larger.

However, it still fits our specification, nothing to be
improved at present.
Conclusions
The FEM simulation before the mold-dies
manufacture has been carried to do the forming
feasibility. The effective stress, the effective strain,
the velocity field, the forging force in every stage can
be explored by FEM simulation. The total forging
force in simulation is reasonable for the actual forging
machine. The maximum forging force is happened
during forming the hex head and flange in the final
stage. Performing the realistic mold-dies manufacture
and multi-stages forging to make the actual forging
parts, then compares with the simulation result; the
error is under 8.5%. The analysis results show a good
agreement with the experiment. This study proposes a
good analysis technology to manufacture successfully
the automobile battery fastener for the industry.
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