Design and analysis of reconfigurable discrete dies for sheet metal forming

Discrete dies have been investigated for sheet metal forming since the early part of the 20th century. The reconfigurable nature of these dies lends itself well to flexible manufacturing systems; unfortunately, the state of knowledge on how to design and analyze discrete dies consisting of densely packed pins is very limited, thereby hindering industry's acceptance of this type of tooling. This paper addresses the design and analysis issues involved with movable die pins, turning a matrix of die pins into a rigid tool, and the pin matrix containment frame. A generalized procedure for designing discrete dies is developed and then applied to the design and fabrication of a pair of high-resolution sheet metal forming dies. These dies are set to shape and then used to stamp benchmark parts out of steel sheet.