Research On Intelligent Design Of Mould Based On Clinching Technology

The lightweight has become the principal in the process of car design, for the lighter thebetter fuel economy, handling and stability of car. With the development of technology,high-strength steel and lightweight materials are widely used in the car. Clinching as a newconnection technology is very suitable for connecting sheet metal parts. The geometry ofmould greatly influences the mechanical properties of the clinching point. However therelationship between mould geometry and the performance of clinching point has not beenfully analyzed and the process of determination the mould geometry which applies to thesheet metal is the same. The focus of this paper is on intelligent design of mould, using acombination method of Finite Element Analysis (FEA) simulation and tests.The paper take45#sheet metal which was widely used in industry as example，thefactors which may influence the FEA accuracy for the clinching are studied, including ALEadaptive meshing and the velocity of punch. The geometry of the mould is parameterized. Theplace order of the sheet metal in clinching is fully analyzed. Then the feasibility ofmulti-objective optimization some key parameters that affect the performance of clinching isstudied. Furthermore, the relationship between thickness of sheet metal and geometry ofmould which leads to better performance of clinching is discussed. At last, experiment arearranged to verify the relevant conclusions.The main conclusions are as follows through the study: The geometry of mould can bedescribed with five parameters including the radius of punch, the radius of die, the height ofdie, the height of groove and the width of groove. The thick sheet metal as upper plate in theclinching result in better mechanical properties. High accuracy response surface equations ofrelevant parameters can be obtained using central composite design in Design-expert software.The multi-objective optimization of parameters can be achieved using genetic algorithm inIsight software. A better clinching point acquired by adjusting some parameters. Therelationship between thickness of sheet metal and geometry of mould is fitted with nineclinching sets. Experimental results are in good arrangement with the finite elementsimulation of clinching.The results will provide a theoretical and experimental basis for intelligent design of mould. The implementation of research results will promote the application of high strengthsteel and lightweight materials in automotive industry and the development automobilemanufacturing process.