Lightweighting by Tailored Forming: Bi-material Stepped Shaft

The demand for lightweight, high performance components continues to grow in the transportation industry. However, the inevitable trade-off between strength, weight and cost is a limiting factor in design and implementation of many technologies. Load adapted tailored components with locally varying properties offer a potential solution to this problem. In sheet forming industry, use of tailored blanks has increased notably in the last two decades, whereas utilization of such concept is relatively new to bulk metal forming industry. The researchers have been exploring new possibilities for suitable process chains to manufacture massive multi-material components. The process chain involves manufacturing processes of joining, forming, heat treatment and machining. The interface characteristics between the two materials are decisive in the performance of the manufactured component. In this poster, manufacturing of a bi-material stepped shaft by tailored forming is presented. The materials and methods of the project are briefly depicted. The results of a combined numerical and experimental analysis of induction heating of the bi-material billets and the first forming experiments are shown.