This invention relates to a formed material manufacturing method for manufacturing a formed material having a tubular body and a flange formed at an end of the body, and also relates to a formed material.
As disclosed, for example, in NPL 1, a formed material having a tubular body and a flange formed at an end of the body is manufactured by performing a drawing process. Since the body is formed by stretching a base metal sheet in the drawing process, the thickness of the body is less than that of the base sheet. Meanwhile, since the region of the metal sheet corresponding to the flange shrinks as a whole in response to the formation of the body, the flange thickness is larger than that of the base sheet.
The abovementioned formed material can be used as the motor case disclosed, for example, in PTL 1. Here, the body is expected to function as a shielding material that prevents magnetic leakage to the outside of the motor case. In some motor structures, the body is also expected to function as a back yoke of a stator. The performance of the body as the shield material or back yoke is improved as the thickness thereof increases. Therefore, when a formed material is manufactured by drawing, as described hereinabove, a base metal sheet with a thickness larger than the necessary thickness of the body is selected in consideration of the reduction in thickness caused by the drawing process. Meanwhile, the flange is most often used for mounting the motor case on the mounting object. Therefore, the flange is expected to have a certain strength.
Further, when a formed material is mounted on a mating member such as a chassis or panel, good adherence (air tightness) is sometimes needed between the forming material and the mating member. In such cases, the flange of the formed material is expected to have a uniform thickness and highly accurate flatness.
However, with the conventional formed material manufacturing method such as described hereinabove, since the formed material having a tubular body and a flange formed at the end of the body is manufactured by the drawing process, the flange thickness is larger than that of the base sheet. For this reason, the flange sometimes becomes unnecessarily thick and has a thickness in excess of that needed to obtain the performance expected from the flange. It means that the formed material becomes unnecessarily heavy, which cannot be ignored in applications in which weight reduction is required, such as motor cases.
Further, thickness reduction of the flange by pressing can be also considered for obtaining a uniform flange thickness or realizing a highly accurate flange flatness. However, since the flange thickness increases gradually towards the outer circumference thereof, the thickness is preferentially reduced close to the thick outer circumference, and a uniform thickness is difficult to obtain for the entire flange. In addition, where such flange is made thinner by pressing, a high-power press is needed. Therefore, a restriction is placed on the press that can be used.
The present invention has been created to resolve the abovementioned problems, and it is an objective of the present invention to provide a formed material manufacturing method by which unnecessary thickening of the flange can be avoided, a formed material can be reduced in weight, a base metal sheet can be reduced in size, uniformity of flange thickness can be improved, and a highly accurate flatness can be obtained, and also to provide a formed material.
The formed material manufacturing method in accordance with the present invention is a formed material manufacturing method of manufacturing a formed material having a tubular body and a flange, which is formed at an end of the body, by performing at least three forming processes on a base metal sheet, wherein the at least three forming processes include at least one drawing-out process, at least one drawing process performed after the drawing-out process, and at least one coining process performed after the drawing process, the drawing-out process is performed using a mold that includes a punch and a die having a pushing hole, a width of a rear end side of the punch is set to be wider than a width of a tip end side thereof so that a clearance between the die and the punch, when the punch is pushed into the pushing hole in the die, is narrower on the rear end side than on the tip end side, an ironing process is performed on a region corresponding to the flange of the base metal sheet by pushing the base metal sheet together with the punch into the pushing hole in the drawing-out process, and in the coining process, the flange formed in the drawing process is inserted between a pushing mold and a receiving mold and compressed.
Further, a formed material according to the present invention has a tubular body and a flange formed at an end of the body and is manufactured by performing at least three forming processes on a base metal sheet, wherein the at least three forming processes include at least one drawing-out process, at least one drawing process performed after the drawing-out process, and at least one coining process performed after the drawing process, an ironing process is performed on a region corresponding to the flange of the base metal sheet in the drawing-out process, and in the coining process, the flange is compressed between a pushing mold and a receiving mold, thereby making the thickness of the flange less than that of a circumferential wall of the body.
Furthermore, a formed material according to the present invention has a tubular body and a flange formed at an end of the body and is manufactured by performing at least three forming processes on a base metal sheet, wherein the at least three forming processes include at least one drawing-out process, at least one drawing process performed after the drawing-out process, and at least one coining process performed after the drawing process, an ironing process is performed on a region corresponding to the flange of the base metal sheet in the drawing-out process, and in the coining process, the flange is compressed between a pushing mold and a receiving mold, thereby making the thickness of the flange less than that of the base metal sheet.
With the formed material manufacturing method and the formed material according to the present invention, the ironing process is performed on the region corresponding to the flange of the base metal sheet by pushing the base metal sheet together with the punch into the pushing hole in the drawing-out process, and the coining process is performed by inserting the flange between the pushing mold and receiving mold and compressing. Therefore, an unnecessary increase in the thickness of the flange can be avoided, the formed material can be reduced in weight, the uniformity of the thickness of the flange can be improved, and a highly accurate flatness can be obtained. Further, since the thickness of the flange is reduced by the ironing process, the press power necessary for the coining process can be greatly reduced, and the processing can be expected to be performed with a press machine that is lower in power than those in the conventional processing. This configuration is particularly useful in applications in which weight reduction is required, such as motor cases.
Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.
Thus, as shown in
A width variation portion 31a configured of an inclined surface on which a width of the punch 31 varies continuously is provided between the tip end side 310 and the rear end side 311 of the punch 31. The width variation portion 31a is disposed such as to be in contact with a region of the base metal sheet 2 corresponding to the lower side shoulder portion Rd (see
The second and third drawing processes depicted in
In the first to third drawing processes, shrinkage occurs in the region corresponding to the flange 11, and an increase in the thickness occurs in this region. However, by reducing sufficiently the sheet thickness of the region corresponding to the flange 11 in the drawing-out process, it is possible to make the sheet thickness t11 of the flange 11 less than the sheet thickness t101 of the circumferential wall 101 of the body 10 in the final formed material 1. An amount by which the sheet thickness of the region corresponding to the flange 11 is reduced in the drawing-out process can be adjusted, as appropriate, by changing the clearance c30-31 on the rear end side 311 of the punch 31 of the mold 3 used in the drawing-out process.
The flange 11 is a part formed from the outer edge portion of the base metal sheet 2 in the drawing process. In the intermediate bodies 20 to 22 manufactured by the formed material manufacturing method according to the present invention, the region corresponding to the flange 11 when the drawing-out process is performed on the base metal sheet 2 is reduced in thickness by the ironing process. Therefore, the flange 11 of the formed body 1 which is manufactured by the formed body manufacturing method according to the present invention is less in thickness than the flange of the usual formed body. For this reason, the coining process can be performed even by using a press machine which is less powerful than that in the conventional methods. The coining process, as referred to herein, is a compression process in which a pressure from about several tons to, in some cases, a high pressure in excess of 100 tons is applied to a workpiece. The workpiece is generally also patterned by the coining process, but the coining process of the present embodiment may be performed without patterning the flange 11.
Next, examples will be described. The inventors of the present application performed the drawing-out process under the following processing conditions by using, as the base metal sheet 2, a round sheet having a thickness of 1.8 mm and a diameter of 116 mm and formed by implementing Zn—Al—Mg plating on a common cold-rolled steel sheet. Here, the Zn—Al—Mg alloy plating was implemented on both surfaces of the steel sheet, and a plating coverage was 90 g/m2 on each surface.
When the ironing ratio was 30% or less (when the diameter of the rear end side 311 of the punch 31 was 67.5 mm or less), the processing could be performed without problems. Meanwhile, when the ironing ratio was greater than 30% and equal to or less than 50% (when the diameter of the rear end side 311 of the punch 31 was greater than 67.5 mm and equal to or less than 68.2 mm), a slight scratching mark was found at a portion that slides against the die 30. Further, when the ironing ratio exceeded 50% (when the diameter of the rear end side 311 of the punch 31 was greater than 67.9 mm), seizure and cracking occurred against the inner wall of the die 30. It is, therefore, clear that the ironing ratio of the region corresponding to the flange 11 in the drawing-out process is preferably equal to or less than 50%, and more preferably equal to or less than 30%. The ironing ratio is defined as {[(pre-ironing sheet thickness)−(post-ironing sheet thickness)]/(pre-ironing sheet thickness)}×100. Here, a value of the sheet thickness of the base metal sheet can be used as the pre-ironing sheet thickness.
Further,
In the testpiece A (comparative example) depicted in
In the testpiece B1 (comparative example) depicted in
In the testpiece B2 (example of the invention) depicted in
As depicted in
In the testpiece B1 (comparative example), the thickness of the flange 11 in the final formed material 1 is generally reduced. However, the sheet thickness of the flange 11 is not uniform.
Meanwhile, in the testpiece B2 (example of the invention), it is clear that the sheet thickness of the flange 11 is uniform.
Further, when the formed material 1 (testpiece B1 or testpiece B2) subjected to the drawing-out process that included ironing and the formed material 1 (testpiece A) which was not subjected to the drawing-out process that included ironing had the same dimensions, the weight of the testpiece B1 or B2 was about 10% less than the weight of the testpiece A.
When a drawing-out process including ironing is performed, the region of the base metal sheet 2 corresponding to the flange 11 is stretched. In order to form the formed material 1 subjected to the drawing-out process including ironing (example of the invention) and the formed material 1 not subjected to the drawing-out process including ironing (comparative example) at identical dimensions, either a smaller base metal sheet 2 may be used while taking into consideration, in advance, an amount by which the region corresponding to the flange 11 is stretched, or an unnecessary portion of the flange 11 may be trimmed.
In such formed material manufacturing method and the formed material 1 manufactured thereby, the ironing process is performed on the region of the base metal sheet 2 corresponding to the flange 11 in the drawing-out process by pushing the base metal sheet 2 together with the punch 31 into the pushing hole 30a, and therefore an unnecessary increase in the thickness of the flange 11 can be avoided and the formed material 1 can be reduced in weight. Further, by performing the coining process on the flange 11 after the drawing process, it is possible obtain the flange with highly accurate thin sheet thickness and flatness. This configuration is particularly useful in applications in which weight reduction of the formed material, size reduction of the base metal sheet, and a highly accurate thin flange are required, such as motor cases.
Further, the ironing ratio of the ironing process performed during the drawing-out process is equal to or less than 50%, and therefore the occurrence of seizure and cracking can be avoided.
In the embodiment described above, the drawing-out process is performed only once, but two or more drawing-out processes may be performed before the drawing process. By performing a plurality of drawing-out processes, the thickness of the flange 11 can be reduced more reliably. A plurality of drawing-out processes is particularly effective when the base metal sheet 2 is thick. Even when a plurality of drawing-out processes is performed, the ironing ratio of each process is still preferably set to be equal to or less than 50% to avoid seizure and the like. Further, by setting the ironing ratio to be equal to or less than 30%, scratch marks can also be avoided.
Further, in the embodiment described above, the drawing process is performed three times, but the number of the drawing processes may be changed, as appropriate, according to the size and required dimensional accuracy of the formed material 1.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
---|---|---|---|
2014-122298 | Jun 2014 | JP | national |
Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind |
---|---|---|---|
PCT/JP2015/053373 | 2/6/2015 | WO | 00 |