Integral sheet metal design via severe plastic deformation – state of the art and future challenges

The innovative forming processes Linear Flow Splitting (LFS) and Linear Bend Splitting (LBS) were developed to facilitate the continuous production of branched profiles with tailored sheet thickness by inducing severe plastic strain. In contrast to most SPD processes the stress state in LFS and LBS is very complex and plastic deformation is confined to limited volumes which results in steep strain gradients and consequently ultrafine grained (UFG) gradient microstructures. Even though the processes have been commercialized, the increased lightweight potential that originates from the local grain refinement remains mostly idle since it is neither fully understood nor easily assessable yet.

The present work shows the state of the art for the LFS and LBS processes and compares the microstructures and distribution of mechanical properties for different steels processed with different LFS parameters. The data is used to identify characteristic manufacturing induced properties that are insensitive to processing parameters. Based on the experimental results a material flow model for the processing zone is proposed which is discussed with respect to the current understanding of plasticity at severe strains.