An investigation of the shearing performance and sheared surface characterization of Ultra-Strength DP Steel-Al Explosive Welded Plate Composite

Abstract

Abstract Piercing/blanking-cutting sheet metals with a punch are still the industry's most preferred process. This study previously aimed to fabricate the Ultra Strength DP1200 Steel-AA1100 sheet composite and then research punch shearing performance and surface characterization of this plate composite and original materials. Experimental studies include various applications such as metallography and micro image analysis, explosive welding of DP1200-Al dissimilar materials, punching operations, and tensile testing. Five different shaped punches were used in the Punching process. The force graphs corresponding to the procedure times were obtained thanks to the load-cell computer system. The resulted surface qualities of the cutting edges of the punched samples were evaluated by image analysis using digital and SEM microscopy. Shear analyzes were also performed using Finite element analysis to ensure consistency with experimental studies. As a result, the composite plate of DP1200 steel − 1100 aluminium sheet metals has been fabricated successfully by an explosive welding technic. Besides, the punching results showed good agreement between modelling and experimental punching forces. The highest cutting forces were observed when the punch "0" (flat-punch, 0°). The lowest cutting forces were obtained from the other used punch forms using punch R2, V16, R1, and 16, respectively. Moreover, the punched surfaces have been observed by comparing the force-time graphs. In addition, this study is a pioneer in the literature on its concepts, such as explosive weld materials and their punch process.