Experimental Study on SS 304 Sheet Metal for Bending Process Optimization using Response Surface Method

Productivity plays a vital role in manufacturing processes as well as in service. Sheet metal bending process is a type of forming process that has been used by the wide range in industries. There are several tangible and intangible factors affecting the production rate during the bending process. Spring back is one of the severe factors which affects the production rate, especially in stainless steel material. The spring back is mostly affected by material properties, sheet thickness, bending radius, die sizes and component geometry. In this paper, the spring back is studied by the effect of various parameters such as rectangle/oblong slots with varying pitch distance and without slots and bending time in the stainless-steel material 304 grade in V-air bending machine. The experimental data are evaluated by means of the Response Surface Method (RSM). Finally, it was observed that explored results have the betterment of the production rate with connection to spring back. The study reveals that the open slots on the bending line with pitch distance has a significant effect on spring back and eventual betterment in productivity.