Utilization of CFRP in High-Speed Stamping Presses and its Gigacycle Fatigue Testing at Resonance Frequency

Abstract

Carbon fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP) utilization meets the requirements of stiffness, damping, and light weight for enhanced performance of machine tools. Stamping presses are expected to function for billions of cycles, resulting in the fatigue of the employed materials and parts. High-speed stamping presses, such as the Bruderer BSTA-200, should fulfil the increasing customer requirement of enhancing both quality and quantity of the delivered parts. Among the quickest presses currently available in the market, these BSTA presses can reach speeds up to 2000 strokes per minute (spm) with a stroke of 8 mm and still continue operating for many decades. For this project, new requirements were defined: a 25% increase of the stamping speed reaching up to 2500 spm, while maintaining the same stroke of 8 mm. The ram was redesigned by making use of CFRP, and because of its high stiffness and strength, it enabled a weight reduction of 65%. Owing to the stamping force of 200 kN and the impact of the stamping process, the material of the ram is highly strained. A major concern in utilizing CFRP in machine tools is the fatigue and change in material properties with increasing stress cycles. Therefore, the fatigue behavior of CFRP had to be validated in the very high cycle fatigue (VHCF) range. This was performed using a newly developed fatigue test bench. To complete 109cycles within a few weeks, the testing occurred at the specimen’s resonance frequency with a constant and controlled strain of 0.1%. Aspects such as resonance frequency testing, heating of the specimen, and an accurate measuring system were considered. The specimens had to be designed and optimized for this type of testing, thus resulting in a cylindrical tube shape with a unidimensional (UD) arrangement of the fibers in longitudinal and transverse direction.