• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
• /
• v.34 no.5
• /
• pp.549-556
• /
• 2010

In general, materials that can be used to form elastic pads, such as urethane and rubber, are often used in flexible forming processes by inserting the pads between a blank and flexible die for smoothing the forming surface that is formed by a reconfigurable die. In this study, the effects of the elastic pad on formability in the flexible forming process for sheet metals are investigated by performing numerical simulations. In the simulation, the hyperelastic material model is used, where the urethane elastic pads serve as elastic cushions. Case studies are carried out for elastic materials with different hardness values and thicknesses. The results are used to evaluate formability by comparing the configuration of the deformed blank and its major cross-sectional profiles. It is verified that the elastic pad used in the flexible forming process for sheet materials should be hard and that its thickness should be chosen appropriately.

• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
• /
• v.28 no.1
• /
• pp.57-63
• /
• 2017

In this study, we identified how the water content change in various NCO index affects the static comfort of polyurethane seat foam pad for automobiles. In order to identify factors that affect the static comfort, a static load test was performed using UTM to plot a hysteresis curve. The hardness of the foam when it was modified by 25, 65%, hysteresis loop area, hysteresis loss (%), and Sag factor were also obtained. By measuring the swelling ratio, it was confirmed that, as the water content increased in a fixed NCO index, the hardness and crosslinking density increased while the restoring force decreased due to the increase of urea bond. Also the Sag factor decreased due to the increase of surface hardness. As the NCO index increased in a fixed water content, the urethane and urea bond reacted more with isocyanate, leading to an increase in hardness and decrease in restoring force.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
• /
• v.34 no.3
• /
• pp.299-305
• /
• 2010

In general, the flexible forming die that has been used in the flexible forming process has the identical punch size; hence, its flexibility is relatively low because the range of allowable curvature radii is limited due to the uniform punch tip radius. Hence, a conceptual design of a sectional flexible die is presented for enhancing the flexibility of the forming process. Two punches of different sizes are used to configure the arbitrary forming surface. For a forming region with a relatively large curvature radius, a large punch array block is used; on the other hand, for the forming regions with small curvature radii, a small punch block is used. The cross-sectional profiles are compared with the target shape for evaluating the effectiveness of the process. Consequently, it is confirmed that the sectional flexible die can be used along with a combination of punch blocks of different sizes for manufacturing objective surfaces of complex shapes.