Forming characteristics of aluminium and glass-reinforced thermoplastic fibre-metal laminates

Abstract

This study investigates the effects of tooling temperature and blankholder force on the formability of glass-fibre reinforced polypropylene and aluminium Fibre-Metal Laminates (FML). Comparisons between FMLs and monolithic aluminium reveal that FMLs can possess better formability characteristics than aluminium. FMLs demonstrated one third of the springback and one quarter of the channel base curvature of the equivalent aluminium form and surface strains were observed to be considerably lower on bend regions. Finally, it was found that interfacial delamination caused by the stamping process can be eliminated by appropriate choice of blankholder force and process temperature. Show more