Hot Stamping Using HFQ Process To Manufacture Of Aerospace Lip Skin Panels

Aerospace lip skin panels today can be produced using a variety of processes such as spin-forming, draw-forming, bulge-forming, or drop-hammering. All those processes have their pros and cons, but they often struggle to achieve good dimensional conformance and require many post-form adjustments and reworking. This paper describes a hot stamping process that combines mechanical deformation with the tempering of aerospace-grade aluminium alloys applied to forming of lip skin panels for aircraft engine housings. Post-forming ageing is required to finalise the mechanical properties. A dedicated tool with male and female cavities was designed to incorporate inner and outer blank holders and longitudinal holding pads. Small-scale demonstration panels were pressed to validate the tool and the design capability. A comparison is presented to demonstrate the accuracy of the simulation models used in the design process.