Rapid Tooling for Impulse Forming

Compared to cutting processes such as milling, forming processes like electrohydraulic forming offer advantages regarding resource as well as energy efficiency. Due to high tooling costs, forming technologies are nonetheless considered as economically inefficient for low production quantities. Using a combination of high-speed forming with 3D printing technologies for tool manufacturing, three variants to reduce tooling time and costs for processing sheet metals for small quantities were proposed. Since the dies have to withstand high dynamic loads, 3D-printed low-cost dies made of polylactide (PLA) are limited regarding their form stability, mainly depending on the forming energy and sheet thickness. To enlarge the scope of application for 3D-printed dies a method to reinforce these dies is presented and investigated. Armoring of the dies was achieved by electrohydraulic cladding of the dies with 0.5 mm thick aluminum sheet metals. To characterize and compare the properties of the unarmored and the armored polylactide dies, specific characteristics of the formed sheet metals concerning the die wear and the molding quality were investigated. Polylactide dies enabled embossing of fine structures in addition to the forming of the die shape. Armoring of the dies led to a reduction of the embossed layer structure. Therefore, the armoring can be used as a way to control the characteristics of the formed sheet metals. In a further step, the cladding sheets were produced with copper sheet metals and used as sinking electrode for electric discharge machining of steel dies.