A pilot prototype production line for the hot-forming of aluminium alloy sheets with fast contact-cooling and multi-point tooling

This paper reports the study of the process chain for sheet metal forming using multi-point tooling for stamping at elevated temperatures and developing a complete production line integrating heating, intermediate fast-cooling, forming and aging. It aims to deliver a high-efficient and cost-effective sheet-metal forming technology with improved process capability and flexibility for the forming of high-strength sheet metal parts. Multi-point tooling sets are employed to test the flexibility of hot/warm-forming the lightweight high-strength metal sheets with fast tooling reconfigurability. The intermediate cooling with high cooling rates was achieved with a contact cooling system recently developed at the University of Strathclyde. With this pilot line, the aluminium sheets heated to the solution heat treatment (SHT) temperature were subjected to the intermediate cooling prior to forming with multi-point tooling. The cooling step is fast and controllable, with different cooling rates tested. The tests conducted on the pilot line demonstrated significant enhancement of the forming limit and manufacturing flexibility.