Final Element Simulation of Blankholder's Lift-off in a Deep Drawing Tool Using Abaqus/Standard

In the deep drawing tools for forming car body parts, heavy blankholders are used to prevent buckling and wrinkling of the blank. During each press cycle, those large masses need to be lifted, raising thereby the structural dynamic load on the deep drawing tool and on the press. Therefore a detailed knowledge about the blankholder’s lift-off event is essential for an accurate and robust design of forming tools. In this paper, a dynamic finite element method (FEM) simulation of a blankholder’s lift-off in a selected automotive deep drawing tool is presented enabling identification of regions of critical stresses. The FEM model is built within the Abaqus/CAE environment and solved with Abaqus/Standard. Each dynamic analysis is preceded by a static analysis where the gravity load is applied and the lifting bolts are pre-stressed. A special emphasis is put on modeling the elastomer dampers, which are installed between lifting bolts and the blankholder to avoid hard impacts during the lift-off event. Those dampers are modelled using a hyperelastic material with hysteresis. In addition, an experimental validation of a blankholder’s vibration under operating loading was carried out. The simulation results are in good agreement with the measurements.