Stamp forming of polypropylene based fibre–metal laminates: The effect of process variables on formability

In stamp forming of sheet materials, the quality of the part and the robustness of the process are determined by a number of variables. This study looks at the application of the stamping process to a fibre–metal laminate (FML) material system and the effect of the blankholder force, punch feed rate and tool radius on the quality of a channel formed laminate. The results indicate that increasing feed rate reduces shape error and delamination significantly and reduces the variation between repetitions of the same test. Furthermore, analysis of the bend radii reveals that the normalised deviation in bend radius from the tool radius is constant for the range of radii investigated. This suggests that FML materials can possess superior formability characteristics compared to monolithic aluminium.