Adhesive Wear Initiation during Blanking of Austenitic Stainless Steel, with regard to Thermoelectricity

Blanking and cold metal forming are two important large-scale manufacturing processes, and therefore have to be costefficient whilst allowing for the production of parts subject to the highest of quality requirements. These conditions require long tool service life, which necessitates a reduction of adhesive wear, especially when processing materials with a high tendency to bond adhesively, like aluminum or stainless steel. To meet this objective, all wear-causing interactions have to be understood. One key aspect in this context is thermoelectricity, a phenomenon that occurs when two connected electric conductors are subject to a temperature gradient. This constellation causes a thermoelectric current to flow, which influences adhesive bonding and entails processes like local melting of the sheet metal. This paper deals with the comparison of two continuous stroke blanking processes with regard to adhesive wear development. One process represents an ordinary blanking tool configuration, and one is performed with externally influenced thermoelectric currents. The results show a significant impact between the initial development of adhesive wear and tool configuration, with regard to thermoelectricity.