Forging of Aluminium Components under a Superimposed Hydrostatic Pressure to Induce Local Strain Hardening

A promising approach to handling low ductile aluminium alloys in a forming process is forming under superimposed hydrostatic pressure. The influence of superimposed hydrostatic pressure on the flow stress as well as on the formability for various hydrostatic pressures and temperatures was analysed [15, 3, and 7]. By increasing the formability of the workpiece, larger local plastic strains could be achieved. The results reveal highly increased formability at superimposed pressure of 85 MPa for workpieces from thermosetting alloy AlSi1MgMn (EN AW 6082) in comparison to those from self-hardening alloy AlMg4.5Mn0.7 (EN AW 5083). As a general tendency, the self-hardening alloys show a lower increase in formability when forged under superimposed pressure. But additionally, a charge-dependent influence of macro- and micro defects on the crack resistance was detected for alloy AlMg4.5Mn0.7. By evaluating damage models in finite element models the damage occurring in cold forming processes under superimposed hydrostatic pressure was predicted.