Experimental and analytical investigation of the force requirements in shear cutting of metal-polymer-metal composites

The increasing demand for lightweight design requires the use of multi materials such as metal-polymer-metal composites. These so-called sandwich panels offer a good stiffness-to-weight ratio. Production technologies like shear cutting have to be adapted for these materials. For a targeted adaption, a comprehensive knowledge about the cutting phases of the shear cutting process of sandwich panels is essential. Therefore, within this paper, the shear cutting process of sandwich panels is studied in detail. The conducted experimental studies indicate that the shear cutting process can be divided into five stages. Based on these findings, a new analytic model is introduced to predict the force displacement curves of sandwich panels. The quality of the new model is proven by comparison with existing analytic models for monolithic materials as well as with the experimental data.