Metal Forming Technologies for Producing High-Strength and Lightweight Parts

Dear Colleagues,

High-strength and lightweight technologies for automobiles and aircraft are very important for improving safety, as well as energy efficiency. There are various methods of achieving high strength and lightweight by using metallic materials. High-strength steel can be formed by methods such as roll forming and multi-stage forming that can overcome the low forming limits, despite the occurrence of large springback. As an alternative, hot stamping is widely used in mass production. Hot stamping can manufacture parts with complex shapes while increasing strength and reducing the springback of parts. The successful implementation of hot stamping requires advanced design and optimization techniques that take into account heat transfer, phase transformation, and process conditions. However, to date, problems such as reduced part strength due to lack of heat transfer performance between the die and material, excessive cost for trimming and hot stamping die, and the complexity of process design optimization have not been sufficiently solved.

Lightweight metals, such as aluminum, magnesium, and titanium, may be used instead of steel to manufacture lightweight parts while securing required strength. In order to improve the low formability of lightweight metals, warm or hot forming methods have been applied. For example, in the case of magnesium, a warm forming is widely applied to improve formability, and in the case of aluminum, a method of increasing the part strength to a steel level through hot forming, in combination with hot stamping, has recently been attempted. However, it is still necessary to understand the material characteristics of lightweight metals that are more complex than steels, and to develop optimal warm/hot forming technologies.

Various research articles on metal forming technologies covering materials, forming processes and die technologies related to weight reduction and strength improvement are welcome.

Prof. Dr. Heung-Kyu Kim
Guest Editor

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