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Flaking during a micro blanking and deep

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Conference Paper March 2014

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Flaking during a micro blanking and deep drawing process

ICOMM
2014
No.

Hendrik Flosky, Stefan Veenaas, Frederik Feuerhahn, Marcus Hartmann, Frank Vollertsen
BIAS Bremer Institut fr angewandte Strahltechnik GmbH, Klagenfurter Str. 2, D-28359 Bremen, Germany
Abstract
Tool life is a critical factor in micro range, where small changes in geometry have a higher influence on wear
behavior than in macro range. In addition, handling of micro parts is challenging in micro metal forming, especially if
lubricants are used. Micro parts stick together because of the force of adhesion. To avoid handling issues,
experiments are carried out without lubricant. To investigate the tool life of a micro deep drawing process a tool
combination was developed, where the blanking punch is also used as a deep drawing die. First a hollow punch cuts
out a circular blank, which is deep drawn in the same tool subsequently. The tool combination is part of a follow-on
tool and used in a highly dynamic, electromagnetic forming machine with a stroke rate of 200 strokes per minute. In a
long term test, cups of aluminum foil (Al99.5) with an outer diameter of 1 mm are produced. For measuring the
process forces a force measuring system with 5,000 Hz was developed. Experiments show that without lubricant,
flaking occurs during the blanking process and has an effect especially to the tool guides of the blanking and deep
drawing tool. The process forces increase from 10 N up to nearly 300 N.
Keywords: Forming; Positioning; Design for Micro-scale Manufacturing

1.

Introduction

The use of smartphones, tablet computers and

other small technical devices is increasing and its parts
are becoming increasingly smaller and lighter, so micro
components need to be installed in these products. For
producing micro parts, micro metal forming operations,
especially micro blanking and deep drawing, are key
technologies [1].
Know how from the macro range cannot be
transferred directly into micro range [2]. The so-called
size effects [3] have an influence on e.g. material
strength, lubricated friction force and material
formability. A more extensive overview about size
effects in micro forming is given in [4]. The reduction of
the drawing limit in micro forming is a crucial size
effect, compared with forming in macro range [5]. One
explanation for this behavior is the tiffany structure of
thin sheet metal [6].
The process analyzed in this paper is a combined
blanking and deep drawing process, where the foil is
first blanked and then deep drawn in the next step,
without moving the circular blank. The background is
the challenge of handling micro parts due to its
dimension (1 mm or less) and limited material strength
[7]. Additionally, if the circular blank is produced in
another process, it has to be moved and positioned on
the drawing die for the deep drawing process.
Previous investigation showed that cups can be
produced in a high quantity with different drawing ratios
using lubricant [8]. In [9], different drawing ratios in
micro deep drawing and the influence of lubrication are

investigated.
The lubricant has another effect beside of reducing
the friction, it also has a cleaning effect and can take
small parts away from the e.g. tool guide or the drawing
die. By cleaning the micro parts the thin wall, in this
work approx. 50 m, can be damaged and micro parts
are worthless. Unclean micro parts also can stick
together because of their low weight and the adhesive
forces. Beside this the environmental aspect is
important too, because the lubricant and the cleaning
fluid needs to be produced and after the cleaning
process the contaminated cleaning fluid needs to be
disposed [10].
Another important aspect in this paper is the
cutting process and the flaking (occurrence of flaks in
the tool) during the blanking process, which is
examined in [11]. Flakes in this case are small metal
parts from the blank material which in can influence the
process. The size can be down to the sub micrometer
range, they occur mostly by cutting aluminum. To avoid
flaking during the blanking process, it is postulated in
[12] to cut without separation by drawing, since this is
the most critical factor for flake formation. In [13] dry
forming results where compared with forming results
using lubricant resulting that there is no significant
difference between the geometry of the cups. In this
work, the flaking during a micro blanking and deep
drawing process without lubricant is described.

2.

The cup production can be divided into four

process steps, as shown in Fig. 2 and Fig. 3. In the first
step, the blank, a 50 m Al99.5 foil, is fed by an
automatic feed system (Zehnder und Sommer EDV
040 220 DG), shown in Fig. 2-1. Secondly, the blank
is held by the blank holder for the third process step,
where the circular blank is cut by the outer diameter of
the blanking and deep drawing tool combination (Fig.
2-2). After cutting, the circular blank is held between
the deep drawing blank holder and blanking and deep
drawing tool combination (see Fig. 3-3) and prepared
for deep drawing, which is shown in Fig. 3-4.

Experimental Setup

2.1. Follow-on tool

BIAS ID: 140546

Fig. 1: Technical drawing of the follow-on tool (blanking and

deep drawing tool in detail)

In Fig.1, the technical drawing of the follow-on tool

is depicted. The tool consists of five plates, where plate
two and five are fixed.

BIAS ID: 140548

Fig. 3: Third and fourth process steps: 3) blanking and 4)

deep drawing

The follow-on tool is used in a highly dynamic

electromagnetic forming machine with two separately
movable axes and a maximum stroke path of 200 mm,
developed at BIAS [13].
2.1. Force measuring system

BIAS ID: 140547

Fig. 2: First two process steps: 1) blank feed and 2) blank

holding

In the first plate, the deep drawing punch force

sensor and the deep drawing punch are mounted,
which is guided in the second plate. Between plate two
and three, the blanking and deep drawing process is
performed, as shown in Fig. 2 and Fig. 3. In plate four,
the force sensor for blank holding and blanking as well
as the blanking and deep drawing tool combination are
mounted.

One force sensor is connected to each axis of the

press. The force of the upper axis is named deep
drawing force, the force of the lower axis is named
process force. The production velocity is set to 200
cups per minute, which amounts to 0.3 seconds per
cup. For measuring the process forces, a measuring
system with a sampling rate of 5,000 Hertz was
developed. This sampling rate leads to 1500 data
points per cup, which is sufficient for a exact force
curve. The functionality is shown in Fig. 4. The charges
of the force sensors (Kistler), which are integrated in
the follow-on tool, are converted by the amplifier
(Kistler Charge Meter Type 5015A) to an analogue
voltage signal with a range of -10 V to +10 V. The
measurement start is triggered by the movement of the
press, and before each measurement the charge
amplifiers are reset to zero for a high accuracy of each
measurement.

FN: 10 N

r: 5mm

Frequency:
5 Hz
Temperature: 21C - 23C
Humidity:
39 % - 41 %

d: 10mm
BIAS ID: 140551

Fig. 6: Schematic illustration of the pin-on-disc test incl. the

process parameters

Conditions of the experimental setup are shown in

Fig. 6. The applied load was set to 10 N and the
angular velocity to 5 Hz. The wear resistance were
evaluated, using a track length of 10.01 mm, after a
testing time of 167 minutes the total sliding distance
was about 1000 m. Temperature and humidity were
controlled in a range of 21 C to 23 C and 39 % to 41
%, respectively.
105

Fig. 4: Functionality of the force measuring system

friction body
material
X5CrNi 18-10
E-Cu 58
Al99,5

10
10
10
1

}
}
}
}
}

The amplified signal is sent to the input / output

device which is connected via EtherCat to a computer,
where a software PLC is installed. The software PLC
processes and visualizes the signal by force-time-table.
Also the graphical user interface allows the user to
configure the details of the data logging and the
attachment of additional information to each
measurement set. A file with a part-Id and a timestamp
is recorded for each cup produced.

[10 m]
wear volume

BIAS ID: 140549

X110
X155
X110
CrMoVAl CrMoVAl CrVMo
8-2-1
8-2-1
12-1
as SPK as SLM

ASP23 HS 6-5-3-C

BIAS ID: 140552

Fig. 7: Wear volume over different tool and blank materials

2.2. Pin-on-disc test

A pin on disc test has been conducted to find out
the tribological wear characteristics of the used tool
material in combination with the blank material.

Friction
material
Frictionbody:
body:blanket
blank material

As shown in the diagram above, the wear of Al99.5

is in all combinations higher than the wear of the other
blank materials. The highest wear shows the tool
material X155CrVMo-12-1. The wear volume indicated
in a diagram (Fig. 7) was calculated as the median of
the measurements at three points along the wear mark.
10 mm
2,5

Sample:
Sample:tool
toolmaterial
material

7,5

BIAS ID: 140550

Fig. 5: Tool and blank material used in the pin-on-disc test

As shown in Fig. 5, the blank material is used as

the friction body and the tool material as the disc. For
the tribological test wear marks were set for each
material combination. Proving the tribological
properties of wear resistance each tool material has
been tested with three different pins of the blank
materials, X5CrNi 18-10, Al 99.5 and E-Cu 58. The
specimens were embedded in demotec 20, a cold
polymerisate used for metallography preparation. The
embedded specimens underwent a cycle of grinding
and polishing to ensure the same initial condition to all
tested samples. In addition for the observation of the
worn surfaces and validation of the wear volume, it was
necessary to have a polished surface. The worn
surface after tribological testing were validated in three
close ups analysed with a Keyence VK9710 laser
scanning microscope.

x
BIAS ID: 140553

Fig. 8: Indication of the wear volume

Because of the undefined conditions in the turning

points the close ups were set to 2.5 mm; 5 mm and
7.5 mm as shown in Fig. 8. For the micro blanking and
deep drawing experiments the combination of Al99.5
and X155CrVMo-12-1 is used.
2.3. Measuring methods
For analyzing the tool before and after long term
wear test, microscope images are captured with a
contact-free, optical 3D laser scanning microscope
(Keyence VK-9710), having a resolution of 0.001 m.
To detect e.g. adhesive wear, an energy dispersive Xray spectroscopy (EDX) was carried out before and
after the long term test.

3.

Results

The tool life is analyzed in a long term test, where

cups in high quantities are produced. During the test,
force-time-tables for each cup were taken.
Furthermore, microscope images were also captured
before and after the test. Long term test were carried
out in [8] with lubricant and it was possible to produce
cups in a high quantity for around 80,000 cups. But in
this work the experiments were run without lubricant,
which means other conditions in friction and wear.

ms

To exclude a thermal influence as a reason for the

fast increasing force, the process was stopped after
each cup for 90 seconds. The tendency of increasing
process force remained the same. Therefore, a thermal
influence could be excluded. Another aspect
investigated was the influence of cleaning the tool after
each produced cup. The comparison between cleaned
and uncleaned tool is depicted in Fig. 10. The graph
shows that cleaning the tool has an influence on the
process force. Up to 40 cups could be produced
without a significant change in the process force when
the tools were cleaned.
Another analyzed aspect is the influence of an
absence of lubricant, which was used before in
previous test [8], on the process force. First dry forming
tests were carried out. Afterwards, experiments were
performed with lubricant (Lubrimax Edel C from Siedel
GmbH) using the same tool and process parameters.
With lubricant, it was possible to produce 500 cups
without significant change in the process force and
deep drawing force. Without lubricant the process force
increases already after the first specimens.
Max. process
force over produced cups
maximum blankholder force over strokes

Time
BIAS ID: 140554

Fig. 9: Force-time-table of ten cups

In Fig. 9 the process forces including the friction

force is shown. The diagram shows three force-timecurves of deep drawn cups. After 10 ms, the blanking
process starts until it reaches a maximum at 30 ms.
Afterwards, the circular blank is moved to the forming
position and forming starts at 60 ms. At the forming
process (140 ms) the cup production is at its end and
the process starts again and the axis is moved down
for blank feed, because of this the force is going
negative. At 160 ms the blank feed starts until the
process starts again at 240 ms. It is clearly shown that
the process force increases during the process steps
from 30 N, see yellow curve at the beginning of the
process to 50 N, black curve after the tenth specimen.
After 10 produced specimens bottom tears occurred.

Number of cups
BIAS ID: 140555

Fig. 10: Maximum process force of produced cups [13]

Maximum blank holder force

400
300
N
200
100

0
0

1000

2000

3000

n
4000

5000

Strokes

Cups

BIAS ID: 140556

Fig. 11: Measured maximum process forces during the

whole dry forming process

For long term test without lubricant the micro

blanking and deep drawing tool was cleaned after 10
produced cups. The maximum process forces during
the whole dry forming process for each cup are shown
in Fig. 11. For all 4300 cups the maximum force from
the force-time-tables are plotted in the diagram. It is
clearly shown, that the maximum process force is
increasing over the produced cups from 50 N and less
in the beginning up to nearly 300 N at the end. Also
shown is, that by cleaning the tool the process force
could be reduced to ca. 20 N. By comparing the
different point in the diagram the max. process force
goes up and down over the whole process. The
number of bottom tears increased from 1% in the
beginning up to 6% in the end [13].

New tool

After 4,300 cups

BIAS ID: 140557

Fig. 12: Top view of the blanking and deep drawing tool
before (left) and after (right) the long term test [13]

In Fig. 12, top views of the new (left) and the used
(right) blanking and deep drawing tool combination
(middle) are shown. Table 1 shows the geometrical
parameters of the process. When comparing both
pictures, the used tool on the right side has edge
deformations on the outer blanking diameter (red
arrows). And by analyzing the surface using EDX, small
adhesive wear (some micrometers) could be detected.
Table 1
Process parameters
Punch diameter [mm]
Punch radius
Outer diameter [mm]
Drawing radius [mm]
Sheet thickness [mm]
Inner diameter [mm]
Blank material
Tool material

0.9
0.2
1.7
0.15
0.05
1.06
Al99.5
X155CrVMo-12-1

One cup from the micro blanking and deep

drawing process is shown in Fig. 13, all inspected cups
look similar to the shown one. During the hole process
there was no significant change in the geometry of the
produced cups, beside as discussed before bottom
tears.

BIAS ID: 140559

Fig. 14: SEM image of flakes [13]

The flake material is Al99.5, which is the blank

material and was also detected on the tools surface.
Beside the blank material, on small areas on the flakes,
elements of the tool material like Fe and Ni could be
detected. This is an indication for an adhesive wear of
the tool or, which could be another explanation, parts of
the tool material where broken out.
4.

Discussion

During the blanking and deep drawing process

without lubricant, an increase of the forces after a few
strokes could be detected. For excluding a thermal
effect, cup production was interrupted for 90 seconds
after each cup. However, the forces increased in the
same way. By cleaning the tool after every produced
cup, the forces remained low. The same behavior could
be registered when lubricant was used. It was possible
to produce 10 cups in a stable process without
cleaning the tool. During the cleaning process, small
flakes with the size from a few m up to 100 m, as
shown in Fig. 14, could be detected. These flakes
influence the friction between the blanking and deep
drawing tool and its guide. The maximum process force
increases from 10 N (clean tool) up to nearly 300 N. In
the literature for forming in macro range, one way to
decrease flake formation is to change the blanking
process from separation by drawing to separation by a
clear cut [12]. The die clearance in macro range has
not a high influence for flake formation [11]. The flakes
occur during the blanking process and are parts of the
outer diameter of the cutting edge of the circular blank.
5.

BIAS ID: 140558

Fig. 13: Cup from long term test without lubricant, blank
material Al99.5 (50 m) [13]

After the blanking and deep drawing process,

small flakes could be detected by cleaning the tool
between the experiments, as shown in Fig. 14. An EDX
analysis was carried out in order to obtain the flakes
chemical composition.

Conclusions

A force measuring system for fast forming

processes has been implemented and tested
successfully. For every cup a force-time-table
could be recorded.
It was possible to produce cups in a combined
blanking and deep drawing tool without using
lubricant. The handling of dry cups was much
easier and no cleaning of the cups was needed.
The dry blanking and deep drawing process could
not be carried out, using no lubricant with a high
number of strokes. Using lubricant, it is possible to

produce cups without stopping the process and

without increasing process forces.
During the blanking process, small flakes could be
detected. These flakes had an influence on the
friction between the blanking and deep drawing
tool combination and its guide. As also shown in
literature, the blanking edge has a great influence
of flake formation.
Acknowledgements

The work reported in this paper is funded by the

German research society (DFG) within the
Collaborative Research Centre 747 Micro Cold
Forming (subproject B3 and C1). The authors would
like to thank the DFG for the financial support.
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