Innovative approaches for controlling the material flow in sheet-bulk metal forming processes

Using sheet-bulk metal forming processes the application of bulk forming operations on sheet metals enables the manufacturing of functional components with local wall thickness variations. As these processes come along with a two-and three-dimensional material flow, the control of the material flow is crucial for ensuring a proper filling of functional elements and thus ensuring the components quality. Controlling the material flow can be achieved by different solutions: the local adaption of tribological conditions and the application of process adapted semi-finished parts. In this paper, both solutions as well as their general qualification in two sheet-bulk metal forming processes are presented.