The Effects of the High-Velocity Shearing Speed on the Sheared Edge Quality and Edge Cracking

High-speed shearing was studied to potentially improve the sheared edge quality of advanced high-strength steels. The AIRAM pneumatic press can provide significantly higher speed than a conventional press, up to 1.5 m/s depending on equipment setup at a low energy cost. The study evaluated the pneumatic press that could increase the slide speed up to 1.5 m/s. Various grades of AHSS steel, DP780 and GEN3-980, were sheared using the pneumatic press with two different operating pressure levels as well as using a conventional press with 0.2 m/s with the same tooling. The edge quality of the sheared blanks was evaluated using half-specimen dome test (HSDT) and microhardness tests. The effects of high-speed shearing are discussed in this paper.