On the influence of slot width of field shapers in electromagnetic metal forming of aluminum sheets

In industry there is currently a strong desire to use significantly more aluminum. Electromagnetic metal forming (EMF) is a suitable method to overcome the limitations of classical stamping when aluminum is used. One variation of forming is a hybrid method where the final forming after stamping is done by EMF using field shapers. A commercial Finite-Element- Analysis program, ANSYS, is used to simulate the transient electromagnetic field problem and to understand the work principle of the field shaper. Due to the complexity of the 3-dimensional simulation electromagnetic simulations are made neglecting structural dynamic effects. Hints on the implementation of such a complex model in ANSYS are given and the variation of the pressure distribution of the workpiece with the slot width of the shaper is examined. It is shown that the electromagnetic force on the workpiece has a linear dependency on the slot width of the shaper.