Aluminium deep drawing with additive manufacturing polymer punches: analysis of performance in small batch production

In this research the authors tested the performance of polymer punches, filled with short carbon fibres, produced with fused filament fabrication technology for aluminium sheet deep drawing. An experimental campaign was designed to investigate the geometry accuracy of 99th produced cup and the punches wear mechanism. Results demonstrated that polymer punches are subjected to elastic and plastic deformation that affects cup radius and depth. However, the tolerance comparison with cup produced by conventional steel tools is in a range of tenth of micron; consequently, these punches can withstand the small batch or customised production of one hundred parts.