Groover: Fundamentals of Modern Manufacturing, 5e

Case Study by Daniel Waldorf, California Polytechnic State University

few weeks after Bennie accepted a manufacturing engineering job at a large Midwestern
machine tool maker, he was put in charge of sheet metal enclosures for the machines.
The design of the enclosures was pretty much set, so the job dealt mostly with monitoring
and establishing high quality product from their sheet metal supplier in South Korea.
Most of the large parts came in with consistent quality, but one of the newer small parts
was having trouble, perhaps because it was made at a new outpost of their main Korean
supplier. The part was a 2 mm thick piece cut from a 45 mm wide strip of hardened
stainless steel. Three punched shapes and a 90-degree bend (1 mm radius) were all that
was needed, as shown below. The two round punched holes are both 25 mm diameter
and the rectangular punched shape in the center is 8 mm x 30 mm.

Bennie was hoping for some travel in his job, but he ended up getting more than he
bargained for. The first problem was with the lengths of the two sections of the bent part
and the diameters of the holes. Both lengths were short, and the holes were too large.
After some stunted phone and internet conversations about blank length, punch size, and
25 mm diameter dies, Bennie took his first trip to South Korea to work with the new
supplier. He was glad to be able to solve the problems once he sat down with the process
engineers, but it was still a relief to get back home after a long trip.
A second problem presented itself almost immediately upon his return. In the same
product, they were finding that many of the parts had circles or rectangles that were not
completely punched out or were barely punched at all. The problem was intermittent but
enough trouble to cause a second trip overseas. On this trip, Bennie ended up helping the
new supplier to ensure that the correct machine size was used for punching the parts.
Bennies third trip to South Korea came within a few months and was to deal with
varying hole quality in terms of the edges of the holes, which sometimes had burrs or
other defects that interfered with machine assembly at Bennies plant. Discussions with
the suppliers chief tooling engineer were needed to resolve the problem. Eventually, the
part quality became very high and the supplier became a trusted source. Bennies fourth
trip to South Korea was a fun-filled coastal vacation at a nice resort. He didnt have to
solve any problems.
WATCH THE FOUR VIDEOS on Sheet Metal
1. List the two main factors that affect the choice of the proper clearance to be
defined between the punch and die in sheet metal shearing?

Groover: Fundamentals of Modern Manufacturing, 5e

Case Study by Daniel Waldorf, California Polytechnic State University

2. What would happen if bending stresses exceeded the ultimate tensile strength for
the material being bent?
3. If Bennies company found that the parts shown in the case study were all arriving
with bend angle of approximately 88 o rather the design-specified 90o, what
general cause should they suspect?
GO TO THE TEXT: Chapter 19
4. A lot of sheet metal bending is done on a press brake. What is a press brake? See
Section 19.5.
5. Hydraulic presses are often used for deep drawing. What kinds of shapes are
typically produced in drawing? See Section 19.3.
6. The South Korean supplier claimed to be using dies with a 25 mm hole diameter.
Explain why the punched holes kept coming out too small. See Section 19.1.
7. What likely caused the burrs and poor edge quality in the punched holes? Explain
how the supplier should compute the correct tooling parameters to solve the
problem. See Section 19.1.
8. If the total force for punching out the part in the case study is too large for the
suppliers equipment, what can be done to reduce the maximum force? See
Section 19.1.
SOLVE
9. To determine the size of the punch press required, use the method in Section 19.1
to estimate the total force required to simultaneously punch out all three of the
interior shapes on the part in the case study. Use 600 MPa for the shear strength
of the hardened stainless steel.
10. The two length sections on the case study part were designed to both have
undeformed straight portions of 55 mm length. Follow the discussion in Section
19.2 to compute the bend allowance required for the material in the 90o bend and
the total blank length needed for the part? Assume V-bending.