Abstract: Lightweight manufacturing is one of the most important attempts in transportation industries to reduce the vehicle weight, improve the fuel efficiency, and reduce the CO2 emission. The main applications are the adoption of new materials and the development of advanced forming techniques. This research work has employed a novel sheet metal forming technology, by manufacturing the panel parts in a single sheet with varying thickness. This has been achieved by combining two operations into a hybrid single-action process. The first one is the use of aluminium tailor welded blanks (TWBs), which enables metal of different gauges to be distributed optimally for making the final form. The second is a pressing/deep drawing using the hot forming and cold-die quenching (HFQ) technique, which enables shapes of complex form to be made from one sheet of material whilst retaining the full mechanical properties of the alloy.This presentation will explore the development of HFQ? technology for TWBs, introduce an advanced material modelling technique, and demonstrate the applications of the HFQ? in transportation industries.
Biography:
Dr.Jun Liu is currently a Postdoctoral Research Associate at Department of Mechanical Engineering, Imperial College London, UK. He Received his Ph.D degree from Nanyang Technological University, Singapore in 2013, where he spent 4 years in developing a hybrid superplastic forming process for aluminium and titanium alloys.Dr Jun Liu joined the Metal Forming & Materials Modelling group, Imperial College in Nov 2013. He has been involved in two projects sponsored by Innovate UK, and established strong research relationships with a number of major companies, including Lotus, Morgan Motor, Bombardier Aero, Bombardier Rail, TWI, etc. Heis also anengineering consultant at Impression Technologies Ltd (a spin-off company of Imperial College). His research is currently focused onmaterials and manufacturingtechnologies, including materials characterisation, microstructure/texture dependent properties, hot stamping, superplastic forming, materials modelling, finite element simulation, etc. He has authored over 30 papers in peer-reviewed journals and international conferences. He also served as reviewers in many journals, such as The International Journal of Advanced Manufacturing Technology, Journal of Materials Processing Technology, and International Journal of Mechanical Sciences.
