Conventional Super Plastic Forming and Multi-attribute Optimization through VIKOR and ANOVA

Abstract

Super plastic forming is a manufacturing process utilized in the automotive industry like vehicle structures to produce complex geometries of aluminium or magnesium alloy components which cannot be fabricated at room temperature. The technique has proven to be an efficient cost-worthy process in forming various lightweight components for aerospace and medical applications During the process, parameters such as die entry radius, pressure, temperature and material thickness at the sheet die interface greatly influence the metal flow and also depends on product quality. The aim of prsent work is to optimise the conventional super plastic forming process parameters for getting the better quality with proper dimensions of hemispherical cup out of AA2024 sheet. The sheet is placed in a die, which can have a simple to complex geometry depends on the final part to be produced. It is shaped into the hemispherical cup using compressed air. These input process parameters were varied and output parameters such as thickness, maximum height, diameter and minimum forming time of cup were studied and L9 Orthogonal array with a specific end goal to acquire the yield parameters influencing item quality, both VIKOR and ANOVA were assessed.