초록
As one of the functional metal parts in steam turbine diaphragm assembly, the hollow-partitioned turbine nozzle (stator) has large and thick geometries, as well as an asymmetric configuration. Therefore it is hard to support a metal blank in the die cavity. To ease this situation and control posture and position of metal blank (workpiece), a blank support structure is newly introduced. The blank support structure is basically composed of enlarged arms from the blank, guide pins and linear bearings. It can help to control the intermediate blank without a critical sliding phenomenon. The operation mechanism of this blank support structure, during thick plate forming for the hollow-partitioned turbine nozzle stator, is first evaluated. A series of FEM-based numerical simulations, with respect to the width of the guide arm as geometric design parameters, are carried out to investigate its applicable range. As the results, it is observed the blank support structure for this thick plate forming can guide the workpiece to have stable posture during the plate forming process.