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Research Article
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OpenAccess
Access

Study the Effects of Spring Back on Sheet Metal Bending using

Mathematical Methods
Dametew AW1* and Gebresenbet T2
1
School of Mechanical Engineering, Kombolcha Institute of Technology, Wollo University, Germany
2
Industrial Engineering, Saint Mary's University, San Antonio, Texas USA

Abstract
In this study mathematical analysis of spring back was done for optimization of sheet metal bending process. The
influence of sheet metal thickness, sheet metal type, friction, tool radius and tool shape on spring back for Aluminium,
copper, mild steel and High strength steels, sheet metal have been used as variable to conducted this study. Since,
the effects of each variable on the formation of spring back on sheet metal forming are investigated the following way.
This empirical result shows that increasing sheet metal thickness from 0.8 mm to 4.5 mm the spring back is reduced
16% and 20.35%. When increasing of sheet metal strength spring back increases because spring back of the sheet
should depend on the yield strength of the material. As the materials yield strength increase the spring back after
un-loading condition also increases. The effects of material type as shows that, using Aluminium sheet metal instead
of high strength sheet metals spring back is reduced by 56.%. Also, for decreasing of the tool radius leads reducing
spring back. Spring back of deferential die 12% lower than edge bending die. In addition to these, if increasing the
friction coefficient from 0.01 to 0.50 the spring back also increases by 52% because of increasing of friction force and
this force generates higher amount of spring back. Thus the effects of material type, tool geometry, working condition
and the thickness of sheet metal types were studied and investigated. Since, ultimately utilizing and compensation of
tool is considered for prevention of spring back and optimizing of sheet metal bending process as well.

Keywords: Sprint back; Sheet metal; Banding process; Effects; processes and has been thoroughly studied by researchers. The
Mathematical analysis; Optimization; Variables and effects prediction of spring back has challenging for a variety of reasons,
including numerical sensitivity, physical sensitivity, and poorly
Introduction and Back Ground characterized material behavior under reverse loading and unloading
Sheet metal bending is one of the most widely applied sheet metal conditions. In the previous time, quite a few efforts have been made
forming operations. According to Prabhakar, et al. [1] bending of to obtain a deep understanding of the spring back phenomenon. But
sheet metal is one of the widely used in industrial process, especially till now the problem of spring back on sheet metal product is there.
in automobile and aircraft industries, sheet metal bending is one However this study is intended to analysis the effect of spring back
of the most widely applied sheet metal forming operation. The using mathematical analysis, by considering tool geometry, material
bending process includes larger deformation of the structure either type, friction condition , working condition and sheet metal type were
with temperature or without temperature application. But in the considered so as to improve spring back effect and optimize sheet metal
every mechanical process certain defects exists due to the inherent bending process.
resistance property of the material for forming it to the required shape. Research Methodology
Although the bending processes are accompanied by strains that are
due to the instability phenomena which accompany the processing. In this study from the beginning to accomplishing result and till
These instability phenomena occur during the bending process (the to reach the conclusion, the study was conducted through Empirical/.
cracking, deformation, the breakage) as well as after the bending mathematical analysis from the data was collected primary source,
process (the bowing). Though, one type of defect is spring back and literature review of research articles, books, magazines, manuals,
is very important phenomenon which makes the object non suitable company report and electronic-sources which are discuss related to
in case of rigid requirements. Spring back is mainly due to Bauchigner bending process, sheet metal forming, sheet metal forming variables,
effect which allows the material to follow different paths during loading the effects and science of spring back and mechanics of sheet metal
and unloading cycles. On the other hand Quality and success of the forming process. Since, the study considered attempts to explore,
bending product depends upon the operating parameters as well as, analysis and discuss the effects of sheet metal type, sheet metal
material properties, material type, working condition, clearance,
geometry of the die and punch, friction condition etc. In ancient times,
sheet metal bending processes and bending quality are dependent on *Corresponding author: Alie Wube Dametew, Technische Hochschule Nurnberg
the designer's experience and involve trials and errors to obtain the Georg Simon Ohm Nürnberg, Germany, Tel: +251913032751; E-mail:
[email protected]
desired result. All forming process will take places in the plastic region.
So to analyze or to estimate spring back, nonlinear material properties Received September 15, 2017; Accepted October 16, 2017; Published October
26, 2017
which will accommodate stress strain relations in the nonlinear regions
are required. Citation: Dametew AW, Gebresenbet T (2017) Study the Effects of Spring Back on
Sheet Metal Bending using Mathematical Methods. J Material Sci Eng 6: 382. doi:
Many analytical models are proposed to study spring back in 10.4172/2169-0022.1000382
bending by using simple beam or plate bending and these models use a Copyright: © 2017 Dametew AW, et al. This is an open-access article distributed
simplified assumption. under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits
unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the
Spring back is a main defect occurred in the sheet-metal forming original author and source are credited.

J Material Sci Eng, an open access journal Volume 6 • Issue 5 • 1000382

ISSN: 2169-0022
Citation: Dametew AW, Gebresenbet T (2017) Study the Effects of Spring Back on Sheet Metal Bending using Mathematical Methods. J Material Sci
Eng 6: 382. doi: 10.4172/2169-0022.1000382

Page 2 of 7

thickness, working condition/effects friction and the impacts of tool algorithm for compensating spring back error and iterative tool design
geometry on spring back formation to bending processes were studied. is presented based on inverse modeling. Kazan, et al. [5] study the effects
Followed by the solutions and the actions to be done on the reduction of geometrical parameters and material hardening characteristics on
of sheet metal bending effect and bending processes optimization were the amount of spring back in bending process was presented and also,
done based of the empirical and literature survey results. In conclusion the prediction of spring back is developed by using neural network.
the conclusion and recommendation of the study is done. Since for the Kadkhodayan the influence of blank holder force on spring back
results of empirical analysis (Figure 1). studied two materials, i.e Aluminum and steel sheet. To investigate the
relation between the spring back and blank-holder force in U-bending
Literature Review process by means of the finite element program, using ABAQUS [6].
Literature review shows that considerable amount of researches Through the finite element method by means of ABAQUS Simulations
have been reported in, modeling and analysis of sheet metal bending was performed. It was found that enlarging the blank holder force
process are considered. The following relevant areas are reviewed: did not always guarantee the reduction of spring back and the middle
values can increase the spring back. Safaeia et al. [7] was developed
(a) Sheet metal bending and mechanics of spring back. investigations on the effect of mechanical anisotropy of the spring back
(b) Modeling of sheet metal bending process, sheet metal type, and formation in advanced high strength steel sheet metal. Siswanto and
methods are clearly and briefly credible reviews of previous important Omar [8] proposed automatic mesh generator to create a numerical
literatures are briefly discussed here. method to compensating the spring back by using an inverted spring
A number of researches have been carried out on the sheet metal back prediction so called spring- forward to optimize new tooling
bending processes and the effects of spring back. Anderson [2] analyzed geometry surfaces. An optimization method to modify the geometry
the spring back behavior and prediction of Advanced High Strength surfaces of the tooling dies based on spring forward simulations
Steel both numerically and experimentally The effect of friction assisted by an automatic surface generator. Having seen nearly all the
condition on spring back can be considered by Kim and Koc [3] pertinent literatures we can conclude that a lot of research is being
higher friction condition increases the tension applied to the sheet and done on spring back by considering a few variables. Not much is done
decreases the required bending moment for a given curvature. Higher by using different factors for the prediction of spring back. In addition
friction coefficient between the blank and tooling almost eliminated the to deformation variables review from the literature but also there were
stress variation in the thickness direction and reduced the spring back limitations on the method for instance; some use manual computation
amount. Consequently, it is recognized that higher restraining force on /analytical methods/ and the other use numerical methods for spring
the blank (i.e., higher friction or higher blank holder force is preferred back analysis. Despite the fact that effects of spring back prediction
to reduce the spring back in warm forming. They also show that higher have employed by considering various parameters involved to use
values of blank holder force and friction have a negative effect on analytical method to solve such problems thus finite element analysis
the formability of lightweight materials. They conclude that for the
has been developed for prediction of spring back.
practical and wide application of warm forming to industrial cases, a
compromise or appropriate control scheme is required in determining Results and Discussions
the optimal values of friction factors. Kim and Koc [3] investigated the
effect of temperature gradients on the final part quality (i.e., spring This section is developed for the discussion and analysis of
back) in warm forming of lightweight materials. In order to extensively the results obtained in the Conducted numerical and Analytical
investigate the spring back behavior of an aluminum alloy after forming investigations.The developed model is used prior to implementation
at elevated temperatures, an implicit FEA model taking into account by utilizing different analyses to examine the effect of each parameter
the temperature effect during forming and un-loading was developed in the sheet metal bending process. The analysis conducted to examine
for simple 2D channel drawing process. Behrouzi et al. [4] presented the effect on the process is using the following ways
a spring back analysis approach based on inverse modeling of spring
back from target shape. The presented approach could be applied in a 1. Conducting analysis in the developed mathematical/ analytical
process design trend for producing the target shape after spring back. model to analyze and investigate the effect of each parameter.
The presented approach is verified for symmetric and asymmetric
2. Analytical predictions are compared with the previous studies
bending processes. For defining the required conditions for inverse
and then, optimization process is done.
process modeling, an optimization trend is needed. An optimization

Filed observation
and questioner
Problem
Data
Identification Data Analysis ,
and Formulation Collections
Result and Conclusion and
of Objectives Discussion
Literature Future Directions
Reviews

Solution and sheet

metal optimization

Figure 1: Research Methodology Frame work.

J Material Sci Eng, an open access journal Volume 6 • Issue 5 • 1000382

ISSN: 2169-0022
 Citation: Dametew AW, Gebresenbet T (2017) Study the Effects of Spring Back on Sheet Metal Bending using Mathematical Methods. J Material Sci
Eng 6: 382. doi: 10.4172/2169-0022.1000382

Page 3 of 7

Parameters influencing prediction of spring back parameters that clearly affect spring back in sheet metal forming which
in fact may be utilized to control it. On the other hand, increasing the
The effect of sheet metal type, sheet metal thickness and tool sheet metal thickness causes increasing of required punch load. So
geometry of spring back prediction are discussed in this section. therefore, finding the optimum value for sheet metal thickness is vital
Effect of sheet metal type: In order to evaluate the effect of Al 6001 importance for the purpose of using suitable values in the design stage.
Aluminium alloy, Copper, Mild steel, High strength steel sheet metal The relation between the value of blank thickness and bending radius
blank thickness upon the resulting spring back prediction, four sheet is displayed. In the case of sheet metal forming process with different
metal thickness values of 0.8 mm, 1.5 mm, 3.3 mm, and 4.5 mm were sheet metal thickness the bending radius gap increases, the spring back
chosen. The relation between the spring back and material properties also increases. On the other hand the bending radius gap is small the
can affect the materials’ applicability in production. In ductile spring back decrees. In such a way that our analysis is performed by
materials, the spring back is much lower than in hard metals, with using four sheet metal thicknesses, i.e. 0.8 mm, 1.5 mm, 3.3 mm and
dependence on the modulus of elasticity (also called Young Modulus) 4.5 mm. Figure 3 and Table 2 shows that when increasing sheet metal
of a particular material. The amount of spring back increases with thickness from 0.8 mm to 4.5 mm the bend radius gap is decrease.
greater yield strength materials. For instance, aluminum, copper, mild This implies that the spring back is decrease with increasing of sheet
steel and high strength steels have exhibit different range of spring back metal thicknesses. The results clearly verify that using larger blank
characteristics. The obtained Analytical results of spring back radius thickness in the process leads reducing the amount of spring back. We
of wiping die bending sheet metal is different for these four different are investigating from the analysis with increasing the blank thickness
materials, i.e. aluminum , copper, mild steel and high strength steels. from 0.8 mm up to 4.5 mm, within these range 16% of spring back is
As it can be observed in Table 1 and Figure 2 with constant sheet metal reduced.
thickness, the aluminum have lower spring back than the other three Effect of Die radius and bending angle: The forming radius of
sheet metal type i.e. Aluminum<Cooper<Mild steel<high strength steel punches and dies determines the size of the plasticized area created
(HSS). When the spring back bending radius increases the material by the bending process. The proper die radius should be selected in
exhibits more spring back than the lower bend radius. From our bend proportion to material thickness, the lower the R/t ratio, the more
radius result shows in Table 1; Aluminum have lower spring back stress it generates in the formed material. With more stress, the
radius than copper, mild steel and high strength steel. Hence the spring strain hardening becomes substantial and a demand for the forming
back is reducing from high strength steel (HSS) to Aluminum. On the force increases. Breakage of parts occurs where by the bending force
other hand spring back increases moving from (Al<Cu<MS<HSS) reaches the limits of the material. It is found that decreasing the die
sheet metal. radius causes the reduction of spring back which means less variation
Ri  Riσ y   Riσ y  in amount of θ. Therefore, decreasing the die radius up to a limit value
= 4 3 −  
Rf  ET   ET  would guarantee the reduction of spring back. The reason of this fact,
Effect of sheet metal thickness: Sheet metal thickness is one of the spring back reduced by decreasing the die radius, may be attributed to

Sheet metal type Thickness (mm) Ri=2t (mm) Rf (mm)

Aluminum 0.8 1.6 0.557
Copper 0.8 1.6 0.86
Mild steel 0.8 1.6 1.32
High strength steel 0.8 1.6 1.333
Table 1: The effect of sheet metal type for spring back formation.

Figure 2: The effect of sheet metal type for spring back formation.

J Material Sci Eng, an open access journal Volume 6 • Issue 5 • 1000382

ISSN: 2169-0022
Citation: Dametew AW, Gebresenbet T (2017) Study the Effects of Spring Back on Sheet Metal Bending using Mathematical Methods. J Material Sci
Eng 6: 382. doi: 10.4172/2169-0022.1000382

Page 4 of 7

Figure 3: The effect of sheet metal thickness for spring back formation.

For 900, c=1.5708 Bending radius (R)=Rf-Ri (mm)

t (mm) Ri (mm) Lb (mm) Al 6061
0.8mm 1.60 2.91 0.19
1.5mm 3.00 5.46 0.14
3.3mm 6.60 12.02 0.06
4.5mm 9.00 16.38 0.03
Table 2: The effect of thickness for spring back formation.

For 900, c=1.5708 ∆α in degree

t (mm) Ri (mm) Lb (mm) Al 6061 Copper Mild steel High strength steel (HSS)
0.8 1.6 2.91 0.49 0.12 0.11 0.08
1.5 3.0 5.46 0.49 0.12 0.11 0.08
3.3 6.6 12.02 0.49 0.12 0.11 0.08
4.5 9.0 16.38 0.49 0.12 0.11 0.08
Table 3: The effect of bending angle for spring back formation.

the equivalent plastic strain achieved in the sheet for different values contacting surfaces are known as frictional forces. These tangential
of die radius through the process. It is noticeable that the area under forces resist motion up to a point. The effect of friction on spring
the equivalent plastic curve for the smaller die radius is larger and the back shows that Figure 5 and Table 5 for mild steel sheet metal for
strength of the material also increases which justifies the larger required constant thickness, increasing the friction coefficient can increase
maximum punch load for it. Our mathematical results in Table 3 and the friction force which implies that during increasing of force sheet
Figure 4 shows that the bending (spring back) angle is reduced when metal deformation also increasing. When the sheet metal deformation
moving from aluminum to high strength steel sheet metal .this shows increases the material will be deformed permanently. But this higher
that from material strength and spring back relation thus the spring amount of friction force is removing from the material so that the
back increases with decreasing of the bending angle. Form the analysis material highly returns to the original position. Due to this reversible
using Aluminum sheet metal rather than high strength steel for the changes the spring back increases. Hence, friction have significant
production process the amount of spring back is reduced by 41% factor for spring back formation, in such a way that increasing of
(Table 4). friction coefficient spring back increases (Figure 6).

Spring back increases with increasing of the die radius. It is Validation Mathematical Model
noticeable that the stress over the die corner is the most significant
In order to validate Mathematical /or Empirical findings with
factor for governing the amount of spring back. On the other hand, numerical result is to comparing with different sheet metal type and
a sheet metal property also says that the strength of the material blank thickness. For constant thickness with different sheet metal
increases, the spring back also increases. Our analytical result shows type (Al6061,CU,MS,HSS) spring back is predicted analytically 0.557
that the minimum bend radius increases from aluminum to high to 1.333 mm and on the other hand for the same material (Al) with
strength steel sheet metals. This implies that the spring back increases different sheet metal thickness (0.8 mm, 1.5 mm, 3.3 mm and 4.5 mm)
with increasing of bend radius. spring back is 0.19-0.03 is predicted. Numerical result also shows that
The effects of friction: Tangential forces generated between due to sheet metal thickness variation is range from 0.174 to 0.0474 and

J Material Sci Eng, an open access journal Volume 6 • Issue 5 • 1000382

ISSN: 2169-0022
Citation: Dametew AW, Gebresenbet T (2017) Study the Effects of Spring Back on Sheet Metal Bending using Mathematical Methods. J Material Sci
Eng 6: 382. doi: 10.4172/2169-0022.1000382

Page 5 of 7

Figure 4: The effect of bending angle for spring back formation.

Sheet metal type Thickness (mm) Minimum Bend Radii (Rmin) in mm

Aluminium 4.5 0.225
Copper 4.5 0.47
Mild steel 4.5 0.90
High strength steel 4.5 3.15
Table 4: The effect of minimum bend radius for spring back formation.

Figure 5: The effect of minimum bend radius for spring back formation.

Sheet thinness (mm) Coefficient of friction Normal force (FN) Kg m/s2 Friction force (FN) Kg m/s2
1.5 0.01 1.234 0.01234
1.5 0.05 1.234 0.0617
1.5 0.15 1.234 0.1851
1.5 0.5 1.234 0.617
Table 5: The effect of Effects of Friction for spring back formation.

Effect Empirical/ Analytical Numerical Variation Empirical Error Numerical Variation between Empirical
variation Error with Numerical analysis
Sheet metal type 0.557 0.56 -0.0053 0.00538 0.00008
Sheet Metal Thickness 0.16 0.203 -0.2118 0.269 0.057
Table 6: Validation of Empirical with Numerical result.

J Material Sci Eng, an open access journal Volume 6 • Issue 5 • 1000382

ISSN: 2169-0022
Citation: Dametew AW, Gebresenbet T (2017) Study the Effects of Spring Back on Sheet Metal Bending using Mathematical Methods. J Material Sci
Eng 6: 382. doi: 10.4172/2169-0022.1000382

Page 6 of 7

Figure 6: The effect of Effects of Friction for spring back formation.

Figure 7: Prediction of spring back in different conditions at different time.

due to sheet metal types the variation is 0.0813 to 0.489 obtained. The work. The developed models were also used for prediction of spring
error is predicted from different analysis is done by using the following back formation by varying parameters such as: sheet metal material
formulas (Table 6). and thickness, coefficient of friction between the die and the material,
and tool radius and tool shape. However, from this empirical study the
The Figure 7 shows that the empirical prediction is accurate than following conclusions were drawn. The result shows that increasing
the previous analysis, while, this Analytical result is directly show the sheet metal thickness from 0.8 mm to 4.5 mm the spring back is
effects of each parameters. Also this study is better than the previous reduced by 16%. While increasing of sheet metal strength spring back
because we considered more parameters for the during analysis process increases however, in these cases more maximum required punch loads
to the investigations. Since, from these we conclude that this study is are needed. For the effects of material type investigated as, aluminium
done and predicted spring back properly and correctly. exhibits lower spring back than mild steel and high strength sheet
metals. Since, using aluminium sheet metal instead of high strength
Conclusions and Recommendation sheet metals spring back is reduced by 56%. Although, for decreasing
Conclusions of the tool radius leads to spring back is reduced. Modifying tool shape
also changes spring back i.e. using deferential die instead of edge
In this research work a detailed study of the parameters bending die the spring back is reduced by 12%. Increasing of friction
influencing spring back was conducted using mathematical analysis. coefficient from 0.01 to 0.50 the spring back is increase by 52%. Hence,
The conducted literature review revealed that, although similar studies an optimum value of sheet metal thickness, material type and tool
were conducted in the previous time, and developed models were radius should be chosen for reducing of spring back. Finally Utilizing
unable to consider simultaneously all the parameters influencing and compensation of tool is considered for optimizing of bending
spring back formation. Accordingly this work is an attempt to study process, when the spring back is reduced, this is also helps to obtain
spring back by including more parameters at a time in order to study quality sheet metal product.
spring back and predict the amount of spring back in sheet deformation
process, thereby optimizing the sheet bending process. For that reason Recommendation and future works
analytical prediction of spring back were conducted in this research Some of the suggestions for further investigations are:

J Material Sci Eng, an open access journal Volume 6 • Issue 5 • 1000382

ISSN: 2169-0022
Citation: Dametew AW, Gebresenbet T (2017) Study the Effects of Spring Back on Sheet Metal Bending using Mathematical Methods. J Material Sci
Eng 6: 382. doi: 10.4172/2169-0022.1000382

Page 7 of 7

• To compensate of spring back in the die design using FEM of aluminum sheet metal alloys in warm forming conditions. Journal of Materials
simulations, Processing Technology 204: 370-383.

4. Behrouzi A, Shakeri M, Dariani BM (2008) Inverse analysis of springback in

• To check the effect of tool material for spring back, sheet metal forming by finite element method. In Proc. International Conference
on Engineering Optimization, pp: 1-5.
• Development of spring back prediction is conducted in warm
and cold sheet metal conditions are also considered. 5. Kazan R, Fırat M, Tiryaki AE (2009) Prediction of springback in wipe-bending
process of sheet metal using neural network. Materials & Design 30: 418-423.
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J Material Sci Eng, an open access journal Volume 6 • Issue 5 • 1000382

ISSN: 2169-0022