Published online by Cambridge University Press: 27 September 2004
Carmakers face ever more frequently the phenomenon of spring-back after stamping, especially with new high strength steels (HSS and VHSS). Renault and Arcelor have been working together for many years on the formability and spring-back of VHSS. Recently, they aimed at establishing a method to optimize die shape in order to compensate for the spring-back after stamping. A method, named “Outifo” has been developed in order to obtain by simulation, from the initial CADs of the part and its referential stamped die, a CAD of a die with a modified shape. This allows the real stamping part, after forming and spring-back, to recover as closely as possible the geometry of the theoretical part defined by the designer.