Force Requirements in Shear Cutting of Metal-Polymer-Metal Composites
New approaches in lightweight design require the use of multi materials like metalpolymermetal composites. Composite materials, especially so-called sandwich panels, offer the possibility to combine properties of different materials synergistically. Shear cutting is one of the commonly used manufacturing processes. However, conventional shear cutting of sandwich panels leads to characteristic types of failure, such as high bending of the facings, delamination effects, burr formation and an undefined cracking of the core material. In the present research, the cutting force requirement and the failure progress for lubricant free shear cutting of metal-polymer-metal composites is studied. Two thermoplastic polymers, an aluminum sheet and an unalloyed steel sheet are combined in order to create different composite materials. Furthermore, the composite materials are cut stepwise to examine the different stages of a cutting process in detail.