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Process Maintenance and Quality

Control
by Kathy Hickey | Jul 18, 2018 | News | 3 comments

AHSS applications are growing, where the high strength body components
help meet crash requirements, and thinner sections achieve weight
reduction for improved fuel economy and lower overall emissions. Both
higher strength and thickness reduction contribute to lower overall
formability, higher forces, greater temperatures and accelerated die wear,
and each of these outcomes reduce the size of the manufacturing window.
To manage all of these challenges, the pressroom must implement
advanced process control measures in order to minimize normal process
variation, as the process is now less tolerant of this variation. The same
holds true for die and recipe maintenance.

Understanding this reality, it’s important to make process decisions that

enhance the forming window. This includes better die materials, surface
treatments, surface coatings and data-based lubricant speci cation. Cross-
functional communication is required to create awareness among
employees in the level of process discipline critical to success. Controlling
the inputs of the stamping process become vital to achieving predictable
outputs, therefore process recipes should be de ned and xed across all
shifts. This is the spirit behind process control, which de nes the
relationship between key inputs and outputs of the stamping process.
Figure 1 shows critical stamping inputs, such as the steel, lubricant, press
and die conditions. All of these contribute to nal part outputs, and thus
need to well-documented, maintained and understood for process
reliability and repeatability.

Figure 1: Stamping pressroom critical inputs including the steel,

lubricant, press and die.

Reference Panels
Reference Panels are ideal for AHSS processes, and e ectively establish
process control of the forming operation. A reference panel is a draw shell
that documents input settings and process outputs (forming strains, draw-
in lines, trim scrap) at the time the panel was formed. It thus serves as a
useful reference for each die-set, to compare to the current operational
panel and process, ensuring that all inputs are stable. Visual changes in
panel appearance or measured changes in strains or draw-in lines allow
rapid detection of input variation, and process adjustments to be
incorporated prior to incurring unacceptable panels (characterized by
scoring, distortion, buckles or splits).

The use of reference panels should be part of a Formability System,

characterized by systematic panel reviews, recipe con rmations, and die
improvement / die maintenance planning. As an example, production
realities are such that reference panels won’t be used if they are not
stored in a protective rack, near the oor (so access is easy). Figure 2
shows an example reference panel rack system in a North American
stamping plant.

Figure 2: Door Outer Reference Panel and Storage Rack.

All a ected employees need to be trained on the importance of this tool,

so panels are preserved and not discarded during housekeeping events.
And a disciplined panel review process aligns production and trade
personnel to ensure that the reference panels are used during each part
run. Draw-in or thickness templates allow for formability measures on
panels in very precise and consistent locations. Measuring these outputs
on a regular basis (every part run) enables a determination of process
stability and trends, which becomes important towards scheduling PM.
Examples of draw-in templates are shown below in Figure 3.

Figure 3: Draw-in template for draw panel; cutout allows for

accurate, repeatable measurement.

Because AHSS products are susceptible to edge shearing from trim and
pierce operations, these operations require advanced tooling and more
frequent PM intervals. All die maintenance will be critical, requiring more
frequent polishing, insert replacement (or reconditioning), surface
treatment assessments to plan repair or reapplication, etc. Finally, tool
and die personnel should attempt to de ne the size of the forming
window with split-buckle analysis, varying shut height while maintaining all
other variables constant to determine when unacceptable buckles or
necking initiate. This information is then used to develop input (recipe)
settings that achieve production stability and robustness.

3 Comments
Peter Mooney on July 18, 2018 at 11:40 pm

Shut height can be changed on double action draw presses,

but most presses these days are single action presses. In that
regard, it is the cushion pressure or nitro pressure that
should be changed when conducting a “split/buckle” analysis.
The shut height should remain constant on single action
presses.
 Reply

Kathy Hickey on July 23, 2018 at 2:29 pm

Thank you for that, Peter! Appreciate your insight.

Reply

worldautosteel on July 25, 2018 at 1:17 am

Excellent!

Reply

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