Material Properties Introduction

The most important criteria in selecting a material are related to the function of thenpart – qualities such as strength, density, stiffness and corrosion resistance. For sheet material, the ability to be shaped in a given process, often called its formability, should also be considered. To assess formability, we must be able to describe the behaviour of the sheet in a precise way and express properties in a mathematical form; we also need to know how properties can be derived from mechanical tests. As far as possible, each property should be expressed in a fundamental form that is independent of the test used to measure it. The information can then be used in a more general way in the models of various metal forming processes that are introduced in subsequent chapters. In sheet metal forming, there are two regimes of interest – elastic and plastic deformation. Forming a sheet to some shape obviously involves permanent ‘plastic’ flow and the strains in the sheet could be quite large. Whenever there is a stress on a sheet element, there will also be some elastic strain. This will be small, typically less than one part in one thousand. It is often neglected, but it can have an important effect, for example when a panel is removed from a die and the forming forces are unloaded giving rise to elastic shape changes, or ‘springback’.