The Automotive Process Chain for Forming Magnesium Parts

The importance of weight is becoming ever greater in today’s automotive industry. Whilst preserving vital performance factors, the employment of lighter building materials can significantly reduce the weight of a vehicle. Newer research projects focus on the material magnesium and its applications as a substitute for conventional sheet metals. Clearly, production of fine magnesium sheet can only commence once it is established that a large part of the steps in the production line, including the successive stages of blanking, punching and hemming, can be carried out using unheated or only partially heated tools. At utg, the forming process of a passenger car inner convertible roof could be adapted to magnesium using a heated deep drawing tool. Ongoing research focuses on the reduction of energy consumption of the forming processes. This is achieved by locally heating the active tool elements where necessary. As the fabrication of stiffening corrugations represents a relatively small stress for the material, it is more an application for cold or mildly heated tools. Blanking of magnesium sheet with locally heated active elements is also implemented prototypically at utg. Based on the results, an innovative tool concept was developed implementing blanking with selectively heated tools. The hemming of the same sheet quality has also been tested using selectively heated tools.     «

The importance of weight is becoming ever greater in today’s automotive industry. Whilst preserving vital performance factors, the employment of lighter building materials can significantly reduce the weight of a vehicle. Newer research projects focus on the material magnesium and its applications as a substitute for conventional sheet metals. Clearly, production of fine magnesium sheet can only commence once it is established that a large part of the steps in the production line, including the...     »