Predicting the shape of blanked products: a finite element approach

Prediction of the properties of products of the blanking process is nowadays still mainly an empirical effort. The lack of fundamental knowledge of the process maycause lengthy process development, and obstructs process innovation. Consequently, a validated numerical model of the process would be of great value.In this paper, an elasto-plastic finite element model will be introduced, in which the extremely large deformations which occur are handled by an operator split arbitraryLagrange¯Euler method combined with remeshing. Ductile fracture is incorporated by a discrete crack approach. To demonstrate the possibilities of the procedure, somesimulation results are presented.