The response and failure of brass H62 specimens subjected to different levels of pre-loaded stresses and heating rates were investigated using a Gleeble-1500 thermal-mechanical material testing system. The metallographs of the tested material were also observed and analyzed. It is found that the increase of either pre-loaded stress or heating-rate decreases the failure temperature. Metallographic analysis shows that high heating-rate may cause stronger local thermal inconsistency(LTI) and remarkably increase the microdefects in the material,which may markedly degrade the macroscopic mechanical properties of the material.
A coupled electrical-thermal-mechanical analysis is conducted for electrical/laser heating assisted blanking. Two novel localized-heating methods, electrical heating and laser-heating, recently proposed for small-part blanking, are investigated with FE simulations. Results show that electrical heating would result in an advantageous distribution of temperature in a 316 stainless steel work-material. A desired temperature distribution may also be achievable for a copper work-material, if laser beam is used. Both electrical heating and laser-heating enable to reduce the blanking force and increase the aspect ratio achievable by blanking. The simulation also demonstrates that both electrical heating and laser-heating can result in desired temperature-distributions at sufficiently high heating-rates, ease of implementation and application. Comparatively, electrical heating could generate more favorable temperature distribution for small-part blanking.
