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Manufacturing of light automobile engine piston head using sheet metal

Article · January 2018

DOI: 10.1016/j.promfg.2018.07.402

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 Available online at www.sciencedirect.com

ScienceDirect
ScienceDirect
Procedia Manufacturing 00 (2018) 000–000
Procedia
Available
Available Manufacturing
online 00 (2018) 000–000
atatwww.sciencedirect.com
online www.sciencedirect.com www.elsevier.com/locate/procedia
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ScienceDirect
ScienceDirect 
Procedia Manufacturing 15 (2018) 940–948
Procedia Manufacturing 00 (2017) 000–000
www.elsevier.com/locate/procedia
17th International Conference on Metal Forming, Metal Forming 2018, 16-19 September
17th International Conference on Metal
2018, Forming,Japan
Toyohashi, Metal Forming 2018, 16-19 September
2018, Toyohashi, Japan
Manufacturing of light automobile engine piston head using sheet
Manufacturing of light
Manufacturing Engineering automobile
Society International engine Conference piston head 2017,
2017, MESIC using sheet
28-30 June
metal
2017, Vigo (Pontevedra), Spain
metal
Costing models forKanhu capacity
Kanhu
Charanoptimization
Nayak, Prashant P. Industry
Charan Nayak, Prashantin
Date*
P. Date* 4.0: Trade-off
between used capacity andof operational
TecholoBombay, Powai, efficiency
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Indian Institute of TecholoBombay, Powai, Mumbai-400076, India
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Indian Institute Mumbai-400076, India

Abstract A. Santanaa, P. Afonsoa,*, A. Zaninb, R. Wernkeb

Abstract
The present work describes the manufacture
a
University
of a of Minho,
piston 4800-058
head of 50Guimarães, Portugal
mm diameter using aluminium sheet metal. Initially, the
The present
service work describes
conditions the manufacture
of the existing
b
piston head of a piston
Unochapecó,
were head
used89809-000
to of Chapecó,
50 mm
establish diameter
SC, Brazilofusing
benchmarks aluminium
stresses sheet metal.
and temperatures Initially, the
as performance
service conditions of the existing piston head were used to establish benchmarks of stresses and temperatures
criteria for the sheet metal piston head. The piston was re-designed for manufacture using sheet metal. Deep drawing, redrawing, as performance
criteria
ironing,for the sheet
punching andmetal
holepiston head.
flanging areThe
thepiston
majorwas re-designed
operations. for manufacture
Specially usinghave
designed tools sheetbeen
metal.
usedDeep drawing,
to make the redrawing,
drawn and
ironing, punching and hole flanging are the major operations. Specially designed tools have
ironed cups, and a pair of diametrically opposite flanged holes in the cylindrical surface. The work brings out
Abstract been used to make thethe
drawn and
process
ironed cups, and a pair of diametrically opposite flanged holes
development to facilitate the manufacture of the sheet metal piston head. in the cylindrical surface. The work brings out the process
development
Under to facilitate
the concept of the manufacture
"Industry of the
4.0", sheet metalprocesses
production piston head.will be pushed to be increasingly interconnected,
© 2018 The Authors.
information based Published
on a real by Elsevier
time basis B.V. necessarily, much more efficient. In this context, capacity optimization
and,
© 2018
© 2018 The
The Authors.
Authors. Published
Published byby Elsevier
Elsevier B.V.
B.V. committee of the 17th International Conference on Metal Forming.
Peer-review
goes
Peer-review under
beyondunder responsibility
the traditional
responsibilityaimofof
of thecapacity
the scientific
scientificmaximization,
committee of thecontributing also for
17th International organization’s
Conference on Metalprofitability
Forming. and value.
Peer-review under responsibility of the scientific committee of the 17th International Conference on Metal Forming.
Indeed, lean management and continuous improvement approaches suggest capacity optimization instead of
Keywords: FE analysis; Flanged hole; Ironing; Micro hardness; Redrawing; Sheet metal piston; Weight reduction
maximization. The Flanged
Keywords: FE analysis; study of capacity
hole; optimization
Ironing; Micro and costing
hardness; Redrawing; models
Sheet is anWeight
metal piston; important research topic that deserves
reduction
contributions from both the practical and theoretical perspectives. This paper presents and discusses a mathematical
model for capacity management based on different costing models (ABC and TDABC). A generic model has been
1. Introduction
1. Introduction
developed and it was used to analyze idle capacity and to design strategies towards the maximization of organization’s
value. The trade-off capacity
The light-weighting maximization
of automobile vs operational
vehicles is needed efficiency
to improve is the
highlighted and it is Many
fuel efficiency. shownmanufacturing
that capacity
The light-weighting
optimization might hide of automobile
operational vehicles
inefficiency. is needed to improve the fuel efficiency.
technologies and materials have been developed to reduce the body-in-white of vehicles. Lightweight materials like Many manufacturing
technologies
© and materials
2017 The Authors.
aluminium alloys, Publishedhave
magnesium byand been
Elsevier developed to reducesteels
B.V. high strength
ultrathin the body-in-white
are used to reduceof vehicles. Lightweight
the weight materials
of car door, the rooflike
of
aluminium
Peer-review alloys,
under magnesium
responsibility ofand
the ultrathin
scientific high strength
committee of steels
the are used
Manufacturing to reduce the
Engineering weight
Society
vehicles, frames, chassis, B-pillar, C-pillar etc. [1]. In addition, metal matrix composites are already in use of car door,
International theand
roof
Conference of
also
2017.
vehicles, frames, chassis, B-pillar, C-pillar etc. [1]. In addition, metal matrix composites are
under investigation [2]. However, there is a need to reduce the mass of reciprocating engine components like the already in use and also
under investigation [2]. However, there is a need to reduce the mass of reciprocating engine components like the
Keywords: Cost Models; ABC; TDABC; Capacity Management; Idle Capacity; Operational Efficiency

*1.Corresponding
Introduction author. Tel.: +91-22-2576-7511; fax:+91-22-2572-6875.
* E-mail
Corresponding
address:author. Tel.: +91-22-2576-7511; fax:+91-22-2572-6875.
ppdate@gmail.com
E-mail address: ppdate@gmail.com
The cost of idle capacity is a fundamental information for companies and their management of extreme importance
2351-9789 © 2018 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V.
in modern ©production
Peer-review
2351-9789 underThe
2018 systems.
responsibility
Authors. ofInthe
general,
Published it iscommittee
scientific
by Elsevier defined as
B.V. of unused
the 17thcapacity or production
International Conferencepotential
on Metal and can be measured
Forming.
in
Peer-review under responsibility of the scientific committee of the 17th International Conference on Metal Forming.idle capacity
several ways: tons of production, available hours of manufacturing, etc. The management of the
* Paulo Afonso. Tel.: +351 253 510 761; fax: +351 253 604 741
E-mail address: psafonso@dps.uminho.pt

2351-9789 © 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V.

Peer-review under responsibility of the scientific committee of the Manufacturing Engineering Society International Conference 2017.
2351-9789 © 2018 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V.
Peer-review under responsibility of the scientific committee of the 17th International Conference on Metal Forming.
10.1016/j.promfg.2018.07.402
 Kanhu Charan Nayak et al. / Procedia Manufacturing 15 (2018) 940–948 941
2 Author name / Procedia Manufacturing 00 (2018) 000–000

piston, connecting rod, crankshaft and engine block etc. Date et al. [3] proposed the conceptual design of lightweight
piston. Reduction of reciprocating mass not only saves fuel but also reduces the vibration of the engine.
The piston head in an internal combustion engine is subjected to high-frequency cyclic impact loading at
relatively high temperatures. Efficient cooling coupled with an adequate creep resistance is crucial for the long life
of the piston heads. These are usually made from a eutectic Al-Si alloy [1, 4] by the casting or by forging process [5,
6]. These processes have inherent limitations on the minimum thickness of the sections. Manufacturing technology
used to produce the engine piston is shown in Fig. 1 to compare it with the proposed method. The piston head is a
reciprocating mass. Hence, it would account for significant inertia forces when operating at high speeds. Typically,
for an engine operating at 5300 rpm, there are 2650 power strokes, which cause the significant magnitude of
acceleration at either end of the stroke (and hence significant inertia forces proportional to piston head mass) in
service. Piston slap, that causes an increase in engine noise as well as liner wear, is also known to be proportional to
these inertia forces.
In view of the above, there is a strong need to make lightweight piston heads that will match the performance
characteristics of the current ones. One of the alternatives is to make a piston head from sheet metal. The present
work pertains to the development of sheet metal piston having adequate strength coupled with lightness. Different
sheet metal forming processes are involved in the manufacturing of the sheet metal piston head and dies are designed
for each step.

Fig. 1. Manufacturing technology for engine piston.

Nomenclature

Db blank diameter, mm tr radial thickness of piston ring, mm

dp cup diameter/piston inside diameter, mm w width of the piston ring, mm
h cup/piston height, mm re corner radius of the piston, mm
d diameter of the piston, mm b land between piston ring groove, mm
K thermal conductivity, W/m-K w1 width of pressure ring groove
C calorific value of fuel, kJ/kg d1 diameter of the piston bore, mm
W fuel consumption, kW-hr/kg l bearing length, mm
BP brake power of engine, kW Rd die radius, mm
A bore area, mm2 Rp punch edge radius, mm
Tc temperature at centre of piston, oC Dc die exit radius, mm
Te edge temperature of piston, oC dp1 first draw punch edge radius, mm
t thickness of piston head, mm ti wall thickness of cup before ironing, mm
d2 diameter of punched hole, mm tf final wall thickness of cup after ironing, mm
942 Kanhu Charan Nayak et al. / Procedia Manufacturing 15 (2018) 940–948
Author name / Procedia Manufacturing 00 (2018) 000–000 3

pr radial pressure, MPa θ ironing die entry angle, degree

pb bearing pressure, MPa α taper angle in flange making punch, degree
H flange height, mm B, L, Rc geometry parameter for flange hole, mm

2. Design of piston head

The piston of an internal combustion engine was designed to withstand the cylinder pressure and dissipate the
heat as quickly as possible. Therefore, the thickness of piston head was determined based on two criteria, strength to
withstand the cylinder pressure and heat dissipation [7]. In this study, the engine parameter of a single cylinder 4-
stroke gasoline engine was used to determine the thickness of piston head. Engine parameters are; peak pressure is
60 bar, piston diameter is 50 mm, brake power is 5.5 kW at 8000 rpm and bore to stroke ratio is one. The aluminium
sheet having tensile strength 275 MPa, a thermal conductivity of 152 W/m-K and coefficient of thermal expansion is
25 µm/m-°C in the temperature range of 20.0 - 300 °C is used for calculation.
The estimated maximum thickness of piston head based on resistance to straining as well as heat dissipation is 3.5
mm for aluminium material. The expression for thickness based on heat dissipation is shown in Eq. (1), where the
value of k1 is 5%, heat dissipated to the piston head. The calorific value (C) of petrol is used in Eq. (1) to determine
the thickness of piston head [7]. Fuel consumption (W) depends upon the brake power, stroke, and rotation of
crankshaft per minutes.

d 2  k1  C  W  BP . (1)
t
1600  K  Tc  Te   A

The depth of piston ring is 0.7 times of its radial thickness. The radial thickness depends upon the radial pressure
(0.02746-0.03432 MPa) on the piston ring [7]. The land between the ring grooves are taken as 2.5 mm and a radial
thickness of the ring is 1.5 mm. The magnitude of bearing pressure (pb) is different for different engines like the gas
engine, oil engine, and automotive engine. The estimated piston pin diameter is 16.5 mm [7]. Fig. 2 shows the CAD
model and nomenclature of sheet metal piston and Table 1 shows design parameters.

(a) (b)
Fig. 2. (a) CAD model and (b) nomenclature of sheet metal piston.

Table 1. Specification of sheet metal piston.

Design parameter Design value (mm) Design parameter Design value (mm) Design parameter Design value (mm)
d 50.00 b 2.50 l 8.00-10.00
tr 1.50 w1 3.00 re 1.50-2.00
w 2.50 d1 16.50 h 50.00
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4 Author name / Procedia Manufacturing 00 (2018) 000–000

3. Manufacturing process for sheet metal piston

The manufacturing process involved in the fabrication of piston from sheet metal is illustrated in Fig. 3. The
designed process consists of eight sheet metal operations such as blanking, drawing, redrawing, ironing, bottoming,
flanged hole operation, shape generation of the groove for piston ring and trimming. Initially, a circular blank was
prepared from an aluminium sheet of thickness 3.5 mm and then subsequently gone through the process as shown in
Fig. 3.

Fig. 3. Manufacturing process for sheet metal piston.

The blank diameter is decided on the basis of the dimension of the final product (diameter of the circular cup and
its height). The final blank diameter including trimming allowance is 115 mm.

3.2. Deep drawing and redrawing

According to limit draw ratio (Eq. (2)), two stages of drawing is required, one is drawing and another one is
redrawn or second draw.
Blank diameter Db 115
   2.6  2 . (2)
Punch diameter d p 44
The die radius (Rd) of the first drawing die is 6 to 10 times of blank thickness. Similarly, the corner radius of
punch is 4 to 5 times of blank thickness. In second draw (or redraw), die and punch corner radius are 21 mm and 12
mm respectively. The parameters of deep draw dies are illustrated in Fig. 4(a) and (b).

(a) (b) (c) (d)

Fig. 4. (a) Schematic view of first drawing die, (b) Schematic view of second drawing die and (c) ironing process and (d) bottoming and hobbing
process, (1-punch, 2-blank holder, 3-circular blank and 4-die).

3.3. Ironing, bottoming, sheet hobbing, and hole flanging

Thickening of the cup wall towards outer edge is due to extra 20% of clearance between die and punch. This extra
wall thickness of cup can be reduced to a uniform wall thickness of 3 mm by ironing process. The ironing process
parameters are shown in Fig. 4(c).
Bottoming operation was carried out to reduce the corner radius of the cup and a hobbing operation was carried
out to produce combustion chamber on the piston head. Both of the operations were performed in a single stage as
schematically shown in Fig. 4(d).
The flanged hole on the circumference of the drawn cup is made to provide a sitting area to the piston pin.
Considering the effect of sheet thickness variation, alignment of the flanged holes made on the cylindrical surface
944 Kanhu Charan Nayak et al. / Procedia Manufacturing 15 (2018) 940–948
Author name / Procedia Manufacturing 00 (2018) 000–000 5

diametrically opposite to each other. The geometrical tool design parameters are schematically shown in Fig. 5(a).
The diameter (d1) of flange hole on the cylindrical surface of the piston is presented in Table 1. The CAD model and
fabricated die for flange hole are illustrated in Fig. 5(b) and (c) respectively.

(a) (b) (c)

Fig. 5. (a) Schematic view of flange hole operation, (b) exploded model for flange hole operation die and (c) flanged hole die setup.

(a) (b)
Fig. 6. (a) Experimental setup for deep drawing and (b) sequence of dies used in experiment for different operation.

4. Experimental work

The experimental setup and sequence of dies used in the experiment are shown in Fig. 6(a) and (b), respectively.
Die holder supports the die and aligns it with punch axis. Similarly, punch holder holds the punch to maintain the
uniform clearance between die and punch (Fig. 6(a)). Spring-loaded blank holder applies the blank-holding force to
the blank to avoid the defects during deep drawing. The blank holder force is the one-third of drawing force. All the
experiments involved in forming a sheet metal piston were carried out using the Hydraulic press of 200T capacity.
However, for the present experiment, the Hydraulic press is set to an operating load of less than 50T.
6 Kanhu name
Author Charan Nayak etManufacturing
/ Procedia al. / Procedia Manufacturing 15 (2018) 940–948
00 (2018) 000–000 945

(a) (b) (c)

Fig. 7. Hole flanging operation, (a) Section model, (b) before hole flanging operation and (c) after hole flanging operation.

Sectional solid view of hole flanging die is shown in Fig. 7(a). The cylindrical cup was located (making its degree
of freedom zero) in the hole flanging die and clamped on the working table of hydraulic press for punching of
circular holes. The hole of diameter d2 was punched on the cylindrical surface of the piston head. Then the center of
the punched hole was aligned along the axis of hole flanging punch using locating pin. The sequence of hole
flanging operation for the flanged hole is shown in Fig. 7(b) and (c). After completion of one flanged hole, the die
set up along with workpiece was rotated 180o (diametrically opposite) and another flanged hole was performed.

5. Results and discussion

5.1. Finite element simulation

Simulation of the first and second draw was carried out using AUTOFORM R7. The distribution of wall
thickness after first and second draw obtained from simulation is compared with that obtained from the experiment
(Fig. 8(a) and (b)). Thickening of drawn cups (first and second draw) occurs towards the outer edge, and thinning
was observed at corner radius as shown in Fig. 8(a) and (b). Major and minor strains are plotted in the forming limit
curve as illustrated in Fig. 8(c). The failure zone was not observed in the forming limit curve. The problem of
thickening towards outer edge was resolved by ironing process to achieve uniform wall thickness.

5.2. Results from sheet metal forming process

Fig. 9 shows the experimental results obtained from each step of sheet metal process to produces the sheet metal
piston. The drawn cups after first and second draw are free from earring and wrinkling as observed in Fig. 9. The
corner radius of the piston was achieved as required for piston head. Flange hole for piston pin was achieved without
a circumferential crack on the circumference of flange hole over the bearing length. The corner radius of the cup is
significantly reduced from the first draw to bottoming followed by the hobbing process as sequenced in Fig. 9.
946 Kanhu Charan Nayak et al. / Procedia Manufacturing 15 (2018) 940–948
Author name / Procedia Manufacturing 00 (2018) 000–000 7

(a) (b) (c)

Fig. 8. (a) Distribution of thickness in mm after first draw, (b) distribution of thickness in mm after second draw and (c) forming limit curve.

The piston fabricated from sheet metal can be used in IC engine as well as in the gas compressor, air compressor,
actuators etc. The manufacturing process for sheet metal piston head is demonstrated to achieve sharp corner radius
of cup irrespective of sheet thickness using a redesigned punch and die.

5.3. Characterization of sheet metal piston head

Sheet metal piston head is characterized by product quality such as the distribution of thickness, hardness,
deviation of radial distance from longitudinal axis of the piston and roundness of piston head. In addition,
dimensional accuracy of the hole of piston pin has been investigated. Fig. 10(a) shows the variation of Vickers
microhardness on piston surface from the edge of the piston head to center of the piston head. Hardness on the
surface of the piston has a higher value than redraw (2nd draw) cup. It is because the fact that piston cup has
undergone the additional surface hardening due to plastic deformation by ironing on the wall and hobbing operation
on the top of the cup. Edge of the piston is subjected to radial compression and uniaxial tension during redrawing
and ironing, results a higher value of microhardness compare to wall and center. However, microhardness on the
corner increases significantly compare to wall and center due to development of circumferential compressive and
radial tensile stress during the deep drawing process. Furthermore, the bottoming and hobbing process improves
micro hardness on the piston head (corner to center).
 Kanhu Charan Nayak et al. / Procedia Manufacturing 15 (2018) 940–948 947
8 Author name / Procedia Manufacturing 00 (2018) 000–000

Fig. 9. Sequence of results obtained from different sheet metal forming process.

Fig. 10 (b) illustrated the variation of the thickness of the piston from center to edge. Measured thickness of the
piston head is 3.5 mm and it is agreed with the value of calculated thickness. Similarly, the theoretical thickness of
skirt is well agreed with measured thickness. Moreover, the skirt thickness is uniform from the corner of the piston
to edge.

(a) (b) (c)

Fig. 10. (a) Distribution of Vickers microhardness, (b) variation of thickness from center of piston head to edge of piston head and (c) deviation
of radial distance of piston surface along longitudinal axis.

Thickness at the corner of the piston is lower than the thickness of the skirt due to thinning but its value is above
the theoretical value of thickness. The radial distance of the piston surface is deviated from its center and lies
between -0.4 µm to 14.5 µm (Fig. 10(c)).
Coordinates on the circumference of piston head (Fig. 11(a)) were measured using Coordinate measuring
machine (CMM). Similarly, the coordinates of piston pin hole (pin hole 1 and pin hole 2) were also measured (Fig.
11(a)) to estimate its diameter and roundness. Least square circle (LSC) is fitted to both the measured coordinates on
the circumference of piston head (Fig. 11(b)) and piston pin hole (Fig. 11(c)). Root mean square error for a fitted
circle is 0.107 for measured coordinates on the piston head and 0.079 for pinhole 1, and 0.044 for pin hole 2.
According to LSC, the roundness error for a measured coordinate on the circumference of the piston is 0.304, for pin
hole 1 is 0.217 and for pin hole 2 is 0.160.
948 Kanhu Charan Nayak et al. / Procedia Manufacturing 15 (2018) 940–948
Author name / Procedia Manufacturing 00 (2018) 000–000 9

(a) (b) (c)

Fig. 11. (a) CMM measuring lines on piston head and piston pin hole, (b) distribution of measuring points on surface of piston head, (b)
distribution of measuring points on surface of piston pin hole.

6. Conclusions

The piston head is successfully developed and manufactured from sheet metal using sheet metal forming process.
The following conclusions could be drawn:
1. Distribution of thickness on the wall of the cup from the simulation is well agreed with thickness obtained from
the experiment.
2. The die and punch for each step of the forming process are developed and implemented successfully.
3. The dimension obtained from sheet metal piston is within a tolerance of 0.5 mm.
4. Roundness errors are within the design limit.
5. 24% of weight reduction is achieved compared to existing one.

Acknowledgments
We would like to thank, Mr. Pragat Marathe, Research Assistant, Metal Forming Lab, for technical assistance and
Rakesh Chavan during fabrication of the dies.

References
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[3] P.P. Date, K.C. Nayak, R.N. Kasture, A.S. Kore, Lightweighting of engine components, Indian patent filled No.: E-2/2349/2017/MUM. 2017
October 24.
[4] M. Javidani, D. Larouche, Application of cast Al-Si alloys in internal combustion engine components, International Materials Reviews, 59-3
(2014) 132–158.
[5] J. Piątkowski, AlSi17Cu5Mg alloy as future material for castings of pistons for internal combustion engines, Metalurgija 54-3 (2015) 511–
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