During trial, we can know either the tooling working as intended or not. Good design and nice 3D modeling not necessarily free any issued during the fabrication. Precise and good tooling machining and assembly still cannot confirm the tooling will work correctly during the trial. Therefore, progressive improvement thru out the process is crucial. In this article, we will discuss one of the problem that may occur during the trial, i.e. the product not well cut even though puncher-die mark can be seen. There may cause of the raised issue. Below are figures illustrated the said issue.

There are many solution, however before that, causes of the defect need to be understood first.

 In the next article, the solution will be described together with the proven changes made on the tooling.

Material utilisation is one of the important criteria in tooling design. It can be described as the optimal usage of material in the fabrication of tooling parts. Furthermore, it may shorten the machining time and reduce waste. Figure 1 illustrates an example of material utilization. The material needed for the part in Figure 1(a) is relatively less than the part in Figure 1(b). For about the same function, part (b) has less utilisation compared to part (a).

Figure 1: Example of material utilization

One of the reasons to use thicker material is to achieve the adequate height needed for the set amount of stroke by the puncher or die. However, there are many methods to tackle this issue. One of them is by using a simple block, as shown in Figure 2. This approach offers various advantages, including providing space for scrap to drop underneath. The block is relatively simple and requires less time to prepare. The same approach can be applied to the puncher plate.

Figure 2: Use of block to raised the die/puncher plate

Note: Images were obtained from the project made by student for their tooling design project.

Alhamdulillah, Mohd Fadzil Jamaludin, one of our members, just passed his viva voce with a minor correction today. All his sacrifices were paid after the result was announced by the chairman. Congratulations again to him. I hope this can motivate other members of the lab.

The project has huge potential to be implemented in the automotive industry as part of lightweight manufacturing strategies. His project is part of the ongoing research at the Metal Forming Research Laboratory at USM about the initiative.

Nowadays everybody talk about sustainable manufacturing and extending lifecycle of a component or part, in this case metal. There are a lot of research is running and writing made about the initiatives. For example about the opportunities and barriers, which recently published at https://insidemetaladditivemanufacturing.com/2024/05/01/building-a-circular-economy-with-metal-am-opportunities-and-barriers/. Various terms and names are referring thru these inititiaves such as part remanufacturing, restoration, refurbishment and repair. The main objective is to extend the product/part life cycle and enhance the viability of in manufacturing process. 

We are at Metal Forming Research Lab (MFRL) also take the initiatives and utilizing the wire arc additive manufacturing technique. The exploration is divided into 5 modular stages; begins with broken/damage part that may gone thru 1) 3d modeling via 3d reconstruction facilties like 3d scanner and 3d modeling software, 2) 3d printing system, where optimial process parameters were identified and implemented. 3) Properties enhanncement via heat treatment or thermo-mechanical approach, 4) Evaluation in terms of strength and surface quality and finally 5) Compliance to the standard or industry sepecification before the part/component can be reinstalled and back to service as shown in the Figure 1.

Figure 1: The concept of circular manufacturing via additive manufacturing innitiative.

Numbers of fundamental studies were carried out to discover the potential of the technique and improvement can be made. Until now there numbers of publication made;

a) Tribological performance;

1.  https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/13506501241254885

2. https://semarakilmu.com.my/journals/index.php/appl_mech/article/view/3920

b) Tensile strength and impact toughness

1. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/09544089231215203

2. https://books.google.com.my/books?hl=en&lr=&id=XKIIEQAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PA155&ots=ADz3MmTcuX&sig=oepI6_d4X-2R0juG0vAlCehjkM4#v=onepage&q&f=false

3. https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-030-89992-9_12

However, there are fundamentals issues to be resolved, mainly the economic perspective, whether the repair work is worth to be carried out. In the future, we are focusing in this area, targeting to define the criteria of high-value component form various aspects.