Many steel industry employees will benefit from a more complete understanding of their own product and what's important to their customers. Those is an engineering support role will benefit from being able to help their customers understand the source of quality problems and troubleshooting, adding value in addition to supplying the right material.

Automotive and other stamping industry employees in manufacturing will benefit by understanding exactly what a stamping plant gets paid to do: impart the right plastic strains. Applying this knowledge will reduce formability-related down time, improve throughput, and improve binder/addendum designs. Better plant floor decisions and improved stamped panel quality are also benefits.

Designers, sculptors, and design engineers who are looking for a "design for manufacturability" of stamped parts will learn more about the material that they work with, completing the puzzle of why physics wins whenever there's a conflict between physics and design.

Define the three sheet metal strain modes and their importance.

Identify the locations of typical strain states on common parts.

Use a forming limit curve and strain data to predict thinning, splits, and wrinkles.

Recognize the importance of measuring strains and mapping them to key inputs.

Quick review: stress & strain

Deformation modes

Strain space and the FLD

FLC's and splits

FLDo

Marginal zone: nearness to failure

Constant thickness curves

Constant volume

Plotting curves

Uniaxial tension

Yield strength

Similarities and differences: low-carbon steel, high-strength steels, and aluminum

Reference panels