An automated surface-strain measurement system, named ASIAS, was developed by using the image processing and stereo vision techniques in the previous studies by the corresponding author and his coworkers. This system has been upgraded mainly to improve the accuracy through image enhancement, sub-pixel measurement, surface smoothing, etc., since the first version was released. The present study has still more improved the convenience of users as well as the accuracy of measurement by processing high resolution images 8 mega pixels or more which can be easily obtained from a portable digital steal camera. It is proved that high resolution image processing greatly decreases the measurement error and gives strain data without considerable deterioration of accuracy even when the deformed grids to be measured and the master grids for camera calibration are captured together in the same image, making the whole process of strain measurement much simpler.

Sandwich structures, which are composed of a thick core between two faces, are commonly used in many engineering applications because they combine high stiffness and strength with low weight. Accordingly, the usage of sandwich structure is very widely applied to the aircraft, the automobile and marine industry, etc., because of these advantages. In this paper, we have investigated the buckling protection of an inner structure plate and the useful corrugated configuration for contact, and the fabrication method of the inner structure plate for large area using the continuous molding process. Also, we have guaranteed the accuracy of the molding process through the micro corrugated mold fabrication and secured the accuracy and analyzed aspect properties of the inner structure plate fabricated for a large area using the partial mold process.

Recently, the use of tubular hydroforming technology has seen increased usage and increased consideration for wide range of tubular automotive applications. In manufacturing hydroformed parts, bending and pre-forming operations are often required prior to the hydroforming process. Higher bending quality of bent tubes is crucial for the successful hydroforming operation because most of plastic strains and wall thinning at the extrados of bend area occur in the bending operation. Springback is also observed due to elastic recovery of tube material after bending. Proper correction of springback is required not only to well place the bent tube into a hydroforming die cavity but also to avoid pinching when the upper die is brought down to closing position. Therefore, prediction of springback at early development stage is one of the key factors to produce high quality hydroformed parts. In this study, a variety of bending experiments has been carried out to investigate springback amount under change in bending angle and material boosting. Throughout the experimental approach, springback characteristics of bent tubes are quantified according to the change in various bending parameters, and a mathematical model to predict correction amount of springback to a given bend angle is found.

During most of manufacturing processes of auto-body panels, the trimming line should be designed in advance prior to flanging. It is an important task to find a feasible trimming line to obtain a precise final part shape after flanging. This paper proposes a new fast method to find feasible trimming line based on one-step analysis. The basic idea of the one-step analysis is to seek for the nodal positions in the initial blank from the final part, and then the distribution of strain, stress and thickness in the final configuration can be calculated by comparing the nodal position in the initial blank sheet with the one of the final part. The one-step analysis method is able to predict the trimming line before flanging since the desired product shape after flanging can be defined from the final configuration and most of strain paths are simple during the flanging process. Finally, designers can obtain a discrete trimming line from the boundary of the developed meshes after one-step analysis and import it into CAD system in the early design stage. The proposed method has been successfully applied to two basic curve flanging processes demonstrating many advantages.

Draw-bead is applied to control the material flow in a stamping process and improve the product quality by controlling the draw-bead restraining force (DBRF). Actual die design depends mostly on the trial-and-error method without calculating the optimum DBRF. Die design with the predicted value of DBRF can be utilized at the tryout stage effectively reducing the cost of the product development. For the prediction of DBRF, a simulation-based prediction model of the circular draw-bead is developed using the Box-Behnken design with selected shape parameters such as the bead height, the shoulder radius and the sheet thickness. The value of DBRF obtained from each design case by analysis is approximated by a second order regression equation. This equation can be utilized to the calculation of the restraining force and the determination of the draw-bead shape as a prediction model. For the evaluation of the prediction model, the optimum design of DBRF in sheet metal forming is carried out using response surface methodology. The suitable type of the draw-bead is suggested based on the optimum values of DBRF. The prediction model of the circular draw-bead proposes the design method of the draw-bead shape. The present procedure provides a guideline in the tool design stage for sheet metal forming to reduce the cost of the product development.

Optimization is carried out to determine process parameters which reduce the amount of springback and improve shape accuracy of a deep drawn product in sheet metal forming process. The study uses the amount of stress deviation along the thickness direction in the deep drawn product as an indicator of springback instead of springback simulation. The scheme incorporates with an explicit elasto-plastic finite element method for calculation of the final shape and the stress deviation. The optimization method adopts the response surface method in order to seek for the optimum condition of the draw-bead force. The present scheme is applied to the design of draw-bead force in a front side member formed with advanced high strength steel (AHSS) sheets of DP60. Results show that design of process parameter is well performed to decrease the stress deviation through the thickness and to reduce the amount of springback. The present analysis provides a guideline in a design stage for controlling the springback based on the finite element simulation of the complicated parts.

Traditional section-based method develops blank along section planes and find trimming line by generating loop of end points. This method suffers from inaccurate results for regions with out-of-section motion. In this study, new fast method to find feasible trimming line is proposed. One step FEM is used to analyze the flanging and incremental development method is proposed to handle bad-shaped mesh and undercut part. Also in order to remedy mesh distortion during development, energy minimization technique is utilized. The proposed method is verified by shrink/stretch flange forming and successfully applied to the complex industrial applications such as door outer flanging process.

The characteristic of sheet metal process is the few loss of material during process, the short processing time and the excellent price and strength. The sheet metal process with above characteristic is common used in industrial field, but in order to analysis irregular field problems the reliable and economical analysis method is demanded. Finite element method is very effective method to simulate the forming processes with good prediction of the deformation behaviour. Among Finite element method, The static-implicit finite element method is applied effectively to analyze real-size auto-body panel stamping processes, which include the forming stage. In this paper, it was focussed on the drawability factors on auto-body panel stamping by AUTOFORM with using tool planing alloy to reduce law price as well as high precision from Design Optimization of die. According to this study, the results of simulation will give engineers good information to access the Design Optimization of die.

Ultra-fine grained and high hardened Al sheet was obtained by Equal Channel Angular Pressing (ECAP). During this process the microstructure, the hardness and the texture of AA 1050 Al alloy sheet are changed by a severe shear deformation. The plastic strain ratio after the ECAP and subsequent heat-treatment condition was investigated in this study. It was found that the average r-value of the equal channel angular pressed and subsequent heat-treated specimen was 1.7 times higher than that of the initial Al sheet. This could be attributed to the various texture formations through the ECAP and subsequent heat-treatment of AA 1050 Aluminum alloy sheets.

Warm forming technology was classified into hot gas forming of using compressible fluid as a nitrogen gas and warm hydroforming of using the incompressible fluid as a thermal oil by using medium fluid. In this study, the aluminum side-rail part was developed with warm hydroforming technology. For the warm hydroforming system, top and bottom die was designed to insert heating cartridge in die cavity and special indirect fluid heating system was designed to heat the thermal oil. As increase the temperature, hydroformability was increased linearly. Aluminum side-rail center part was formed 90% at the internal pressure of 100bar and perfectly formed at 300bar within a moderate temperature. The tube material used for warm hydroforming was a aluminum 6000 series alloy with the diameter of 120mm, thickness of 5mm, length of 1,300mm. Warm hydroformed side-rail center part had 20% of maximum expansion ratio and below 20% of maximum thinning ratio at corner radius. This results were provided to show warm hydroforming possibility for aluminum automotive components.

In the present study, the blow forming characteristics of AZ31 sheet was investigated to test the feasibility of the practical application of wrought Mg alloys. Mg alloys have drawn a huge attention in the field of transportation and consumer electronics industries since it is the lightest alloy which could be industrially applicable. Most Mg alloy components have been fabricated by casting method. However, there have been a lot of research activities on the wrought alloys and their plastic forming process recently. Shallow cups for the small electronics cases have been stamped with warm die system. However, some technical issues will challenge Mg forming when large parts are considered with warm die system over $200^{\circ}C$. Most of all, thermal expansion of die system will deteriorate a die accuracy. On the other hand, blow forming does not have a problem with inaccuracy with die system. In this study, tensile tests were followed by blow forming at various temperature and pressure. AZ31 sheet showed a superplastic deformation behavior with extensive grain boundary sliding at the temperature above $300^{\circ}C$. However, the deformation behavior was likely to differ depending on stress condition.