Study on micro hydro-mechanical deep drawing using finite element method

A numerical model was established to investigate the micro hydro-mechanical deep drawing process of austenitic stainless steel 304 foil (0.05 mm thickness). Due to the miniaturisation of the specimen size, the effect of grain size, gap distance and radial pressure during drawing process could be prominent. The results indicate that the appropriate radial pressure and gap distance could improve the limit drawing ratio (LDR) of manufactured cylindrical cups by reducing the friction resistance. The maximum LDR obtained in the present work reaches 3.2, which is much higher than that obtained by conventional deep drawing process.