Many studies have been conducted on the process of forming magnesium alloy sheets to reduce the body weights of vehicles. Magnesium has a lower specific gravity than steel and also has a higher specific strength. Mg alloy sheets have low formability and a lot of springback due to their limited ductility and low young's modulus. As the temperature increases, the yield strength of the material decreases. Warm forming increases the formability and minimizes the springback of a material by heating it and the die to reduce the required load at forming. In this study, the temperature of the AZ31B sheet was controlled in order to reduce springback and increase formability. However, as the temperature increased, the deformation characteristics of the material changed and the radius of curvature of the material increased. The load and springback amount required for forming were analyzed according to the temperature and the bottoming force in the bending deformation.

Magnesium material could be widely used in the automotive industry because of its high strength to weight ratio, but the electric resistance spot welding process of magnesium sheets is difficult because of its low electric resistance and high thermal conduction and thermal expansion. For this reason, an electric resistance surface friction spot welding process using rotating dies is suggested for the spot welding of magnesium metal sheets. This welding method can be characterized by three heating methods: (1) electric resistance heating on contacted surface, (2) surface friction heating by rotating dies, and (3) thermal conduction heating from heated steel electrodes, for the fusion of metal at the interfacial zone between the two magnesium sheets. This welding process also has variables to explore, such as welding currents, diameters of the steel electrode, and rotating dies. It was found that the welding strength could reach industrial requirements by applying a welding current of 11.0kA, with steel electrodes of 12mm diameter, with rotating dies of 4.4 mm diameter, under the condition of a revolution speed of 1200rpm of rotating dies, for the surface friction spot welding process of AZ31 magnesium alloy sheets of 1.4mm thickness.

In the rectangular bar multi-stage drawing process, the cross-section dimensional accuracy of the rectangular bar varies depending on the aspect ratio and process conditions. It is very important to predict the dimensional error of the cross-section occurring in the multi-stage drawing process according to the aspect ratio of the rectangular bar and the half die angle of each pass. In this study, a process map for improving the dimensional accuracy according to the aspect ratio was derived in the drawing process of a rectangular bar. FE-simulation of the multi-stage shape drawing process was carried out with four types of rectangular bar. The results of the FE-simulation were trained to the nonlinear relationship between the shape parameters using an Artificial Neural Network (ANN), and the process maps were derived from them. The optimum half die angles were determined from the process maps on the dimensional accuracy. The validity of the suggested process map for aspect ratios 1.25~2:1 were verified through FE-simulation and experimentation.

The success of warm forming of Mg alloy sheets is very dependent on its frictional behavior at elevated temperatures. The effects of contact pressure and sliding length on the frictional characteristics of AZ31B Mg alloy sheet were investigated at elevated temperature and at room temperature. The contact pressure range for the friction test was determined through FE analysis of the roof panel which is a candidate for Mg alloy application. According to the experimental results, the frictional behavior of the Mg alloy sheet is equally highly influenced by both sliding length and contact pressure at room temperature. At elevated temperatures, however, the sliding length has a more dominant influence on the frictional characteristics of the Mg alloy sheet than the contact pressure, if the contact pressure is lower than a certain level.

In order to increase the lifetimes of cold forging dies, insert rings are generally used. In this study, an insert ring and shrunk ring of the flange upsetting die were designed for the cold forging of an automotive wheel nut. The Stress distribution occurring in the die during forging was simulated using a commercial finite element analyzing program. The effects of the fitting interference and inclined angle of the insert ring on the compressive stress of the die inside were also investigated. The simulated data were compared with the real lifetimes of the forging dies. The maximum compressive stress acting on the edge of a forging die should have the most influence on die lifetime, an idea which could help develop the die design with the longest lifetime. The design of the most optimal forging die with the longest lifetime is made possible by analyzing the maximum inner pressure and principal stress between the shrunk ring and insert ring.

In this study, the cooling characteristics of dies were investigated in the hot stamping process of front pillars for automobile. Two identical dies were manufactured out of tool steels with different thermal conductivities. The dies were designed with curved channels for uniform cooling of the blank. Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations were also carried out, which can consider the heat transfer among the coolant, die, and blank. Measured and simulated thermal histories of dies were compared, and it was shown that high conductivity tool steel has an excellent cooling capacity compared to conventional tool steel.

The influence of electric current on the springback characteristics of AZX311 magnesium alloy and martensitic steel after V-bending test is investigated. Various pulsed electric currents are applied into the specimens followed by a V-bending test, and the changes in the springback angle are measured. In order to evaluate not only the thermal effect but also the athermal effect of electric current on the springback angle, the temperature rises resulting from the applied electric current are measured for all test conditions. As a result, it was found that the springback is significantly decreased as the current density increases. As for the martensitic steel, since the dislocation recovery immoderately occurs at a high electric current density condition of $80A/mm^2$, the optimal current density condition should be required.