Forming and Modal Analysis of Sheet Metal Oil Pan

Formability is a continuing quest for sheet metal manufacturing processes. This paper intends to study formability of a sheet metal oil pan using AKDQ (Aluminum Killed Draw Quality) steel and to perform finite element modal analysis on the formed part. Forming a sheet metal oil pan requires a blank, a die having the geometry of the desired oil pan and a punch that replicates the die geometry. For parts with quite complex geometry or with deep cavities or intricacies, a blank holder or binder is required to hold the blank with the die. This is to feed the blank inside the cavity in a controlled manner. The hold-down pressure or the pressure with which the blank is held with the die can be properly controlled as a function of time in order to get the desired part with minimum strain concentration zones. On successful forming, the formed part is subjected to modal analysis to visualize and understand the motions occurring when the part vibrates. This is usually done using exact part geometry. In this paper modal analysis has been done on virtually formed part. By this, the exact features of the actual part, that are characteristics of the forming process, are captured, giving mode shapes and frequencies of vibrations that are much closer to realistic values.