Experimental investigation of the effect of specially manufactured blank (SMB) materials on deep drawing

Deep drawing, one of the sheet metal forming processes, has a large area of use in industry. In the deep drawing, sheets having a fixed thickness are usually deep drawn. In general, there are some limitations, which prevent the part from being drawn at the desired depth, in the deep-drawing processes. Some of these consist of the increase in the sheet thickness towards the end of the part, being exposed to ironing, increasing wrinkles, exposure of the material to deformation hardening, and as a result, the fractures occur in the drawn part. Many special methods have been developed to increase the drawing height. One of them is to use blanks having machined edges. In the present study, the edges of the blank material were thinned by using the turning process at certain angles to avoid the above-mentioned negative effects. In this study, Al-1050 aluminum alloy with a thickness of 2 mm and machined edges of 1°, 2°, 3°, and 4° were used. The results were compared with the unmachined blanks. The highest drawing height was obtained with the blank having a 1° machined edge and 95 mm diameter. In addition, the power (approximately 7–31%) needed for deep drawing and material weight were reduced with the help of the deep-drawing process applied by using a specially manufactured blank.