Optimizing sheet metal forming – Aircraft doorframe
The aerospace industry has a tradition of using low cost pressing techniques with only one die half, such as fluid cell pressing and rubber pad pressing, ideal when producing many different components in small series.
The demonstrator door frame has a complex shape including a large central indentation, six non-circular holes and an undercut. It has been manufactured in 2 mm (0.08”) Aluminium 2024-0 and in 2024-W. After forming, the -W temper was aged at room temperature to obtain 2024-T42.
In this project we describe how the production of the doorframe for a large-scale commercial aircraft could be realized by the implementation of computer simulations (including analysis of spring-back and material thinning), the implementation of modern tool design and the implementation of high-pressure forming technology. Again, by optimizing the earlier used fabrication process, the project demonstrated that the number of fabrication steps could be reduced from 16 to only three steps, thereby reducing or even eliminating the need for hand correction. The current tool has not been compensated for spring-back, still the geometric accuracy and repeatability is very good.