Building a substitute model of a bolster based on experimentally determined deflection

The high design requirements in the production of car body parts necessitate an exact closure of the forming tools in deep drawing processes. The tool closure is directly related to the machine elastic behaviour. To significantly reduce efforts and save time during ramp up of new forming tools, knowledge of the expected machine behaviour should be considered during the virtual development process of the tools. A prerequisite for that is building a validated machine-specific substitute model of the forming press composed of bolster, ram and drawing cushion. In this contribution, a substitute model with the help of finite element analysis (FEA) based on experimentally determined deflection is presented. The deflection measurements are performed by means of a multifunctional press measuring system from Volkswagen.