Abstract
The deformation of sheet metal due to the residual stress during blanking or piercing process, is numerically simulated by means of a commercial finite element code. Two dimensional plain strain problem is solved and then its result is applied to the deformation analysis of the lead frame. The plain strain element is applied to the 2D problem to observe the Von Mises equivalent stress concentration at the both shearing edges. As the punch penetrates into the sheet material, the stress concentration generated on both edges is getting increased to be the shearing surface. The limits of the punching depth applied to the simulation is 16% and 24% of the sheet thickness for the plain strain element and the hexahedral element, respectively. The hexahedral element and the limit of punching depth were applied to the deformation analysis of the lead frame for the blanking process. The FEM results for the lead deformation were very good agreement with the experimental ones. This paper shows that the coarse mesh has enabled to analyze the lead deformation generated due to the blanking mechanism. This simple approach to save the calculation time will be very effective to the design of the blanking tools in industries.