Patchwork Blanks - an effective technology for the economic production of lightweight parts

In the patchwork technology blanks are reinforced locally in highly stressed areas by bonded or welded sheets (patches). In contrast to other known procedures with reinforcements the joining is done while the sheets are flat. After this step the sheets are formed together as composite, thus considerably reducing the number of tools required for the forming operations. To achieve successful forming processes of these reinforced blanks, new methods for the numerical simulation and the design of the patches and the connections were developed by the Fraunhofer Institute for Machine Tools and Forming Technology (IWU). In this presentation some results of our research work will be presented. An overview is given about how patchworking can be applied to complicated parts.