Springback compensation in deep drawing applications

This work deals with the problem of springback compensation in sheet metal forming. Satisfactory results can be achieved by performing “die compensation”: the die is modified pretending to obtain a different configuration at the end of the punch stroke, but in order that the final piece coincides with the desired one after the deformation due to springback. Empirical die compensation has nowadays been replaced by numerical simulation, but the inverse problem that needs to be solved is non-trivial since the transformation from the modified geometry of the die and the final piece obtained from it implies a very complex FEM simulation. In this work we set the whole process of springback compensation on solid physical and mathematical grounds. An optimization algorithm based on the Gauss-Newton method is proposed to deliver automatic die compensation and its performance is investigated on some test cases.