Special Issue Article

Advances in Mechanical Engineering

2017, Vol. 9(8) 1–6
Ó The Author(s) 2017
A study on the high-speed forming DOI: 10.1177/1687814017716074
journals.sagepub.com/home/ade
press using electromagnetic force

Min Kuk Choi, Chan Gon Park, Young Choi, Ji Yeon Shim
and Bong Yong Kang

Abstract
In this article, a high-speed forming press using electromagnetic pulse force is designed with the finite element analysis.
The punch of the press is fixed to an aluminum plate driven by electromagnetic pulse force. The force is the repulsive
force between the aluminum plate and the coil. The coil is supplied with a high-voltage AC current impulse from the
capacitor, and then the magnetized aluminum plate moves upward at high speed to perform the pressing. For the analysis
of the pressing, the coupled analysis of electromagnetic field and rigid-body dynamics of the aluminum plate is performed
with a commercial finite element software, ANSYS, and the rigid-body dynamics theory. A simple upsetting test is per-
formed with the high-speed press.

Keywords
High-speed forming, electromagnetic force, finite element analysis, simple upsetting

Date received: 2 February 2017; accepted: 26 May 2017

Academic Editor: Soheil Salahshour

Introduction directly. However, some high-speed forming technolo-

High-speed forming is widely investigated to overcome
the lower formability of high strength material.1 In
high-speed forming, the workpiece can be accelerated
to high speed of up to several hundred meter per sec-
ond. According to Psyk et al.,2 the mechanical proper-
ties and the formability of the workpiece material can
be improved at the high strain rates. Electromagnetic
forming (EMF) is one of high-speed forming that uses
induced electromagnetic forces by a transient high-
voltage AC current. In recent years, interests in EMF
have been growing in the field of high-speed forming
since EMF offers several advantages over the conven-
tional forming method. The papers related to EMF
and magnetic pulse welding (MPW) are 79% among
the papers presented in the high-speed forming confer-
ence, ICHSF2012.1
In general, the punch which is essential for the con-
ventional forming is not required in EMF process
because the EMF force is applied to the workpiece
gies have been developed for the forming processes that
require the punch, such as high-speed blanking and
stamping with a small radius.3–5 Vohnout3 proposed
combined deep drawing and electromagnetic calibra-
tion to form a door inner and a hood part with com-
plex geometries. The geometrical details are calibrated
electromagnetically using the coil integrated in the
punch. Grünbaum et al.4 investigated the quality of
blanked parts at the high-speed blanking process. Shim
et al.5 developed electro-mechanical coupled finite ele-
ment (FE) model for EMF of thin aluminum plate
using the punch.
Carbon & Light Materials Application R&D Group, KITECH,
Jeonju, Korea
Corresponding author:
Young Choi, Carbon & Light Materials Application R&D Group,
KITECH, 222, Palbok-ro, Jeonju 54853, Jeonbuk, Korea.
Email: ychoi@kitech.re.kr

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open-access-at-sage).
2 Advances in Mechanical Engineering

In this article, a high-speed forming press using elec-

tromagnetic pulse force is designed with the FE analy-
sis. The punch of the press is fixed to an aluminum
plate driven by electromagnetic pulse force. The force is
the repulsive force between the aluminum plate and the
coil. When the coil is discharged with a high-voltage
AC current impulse from the capacitor, the magnetized
aluminum plate forced to move upward at high speed.
The high-speed forming process is then conducted.
The forming process is limited to the kinematic
energy of the aluminum plate. The kinematic energy is
determined with the mass and velocity of the plate. To
evaluate the velocity of the plate and the analysis of the
pressing, the coupled analysis of electromagnetic field
Figure 1. Schematic diagram.
and rigid-body dynamic of the aluminum plate is per-
formed with a commercial FE software, ANSYS,6 and
the rigid-body dynamics theory.7 A simple upsetting
test is performed with the high-speed press. The test
result demonstrates the possibility of application of the
high-speed forming process.

High-speed press using electromagnetic

pulse force
Press system
As shown in Figure 1, the high-speed press system con-
sists of an aluminum plate with the punch, a steel fix-
ture, a spacer, an upper die, and a coil. When the stored
charging energy of the magnetic power source is dis-
charged to the coil, electromagnetic force is generated
between the aluminum plate and the coil. Then the alu- Figure 2. Bar-type coil.
minum plate moves at high speed by this electromag-
netic pulse force.
The coil shape is one of important factors for achiev-
ing successful forming because the magnitude and dis-
tribution of the electromagnetic force on the aluminum
plate can be changed depending on the shape of the
coil. In this study, the bar-type coil is employed for get-
ting high electromagnetic force during the forming pro-
cess as shown Figure 2. The bar-type coil has high
current density than others shape, thus this coil can
generate the high electromagnetic field between the coil
and the aluminum plate instantaneously.8 In addition,
the bar-type coil has the high strength that is able to
endure the reaction force during the forming process.

Electromagnetic pulse power source

As shown in Figure 3, electromagnetic pulse forming
system includes a magnetic pulse power source which Figure 3. Electromagnetic forming system.
consists of capacitor banks and high-speed press.
Specifications of the electromagnetic pulse forming sys-
tem are shown in Table 1. System capacitance is 840 mF addition, Rogowski coil is installed around the mag-
and charging voltages can be varied from 1 to 10 kV, netic pulse power source and the coil in order to
resulting in charging energy from 0.42 to 42 kJ. In observe a discharge current and its waveform.
Choi et al. 3

simplification of modeling, the coil and the aluminum

plate are assumed to be axisymmetric. Figure 4 shows
the FE model for the analysis. FE model is constructed
using the two-dimensional (2D) eight-node magnetic
solid element. Since EMF system is assumed to be
equivalent RLC circuit,2 the electric circuit is evaluated.
In the model, the capacitance is 840 mF and the induc-
tance is 0.4 mH. The charged energy is 10.5 and
15.12 kJ when the initial voltage is 5 and 6 kV, respec-
tively. The magnetic fields and corresponding electro-
magnetic force are analyzed with the obtained circuit
on the coil. Table 2 shows the material properties and
the dimensions of the coil and the plate.
Figure 4. FE model for the electromagnetic analysis.
Rigid-body dynamic analysis
The motion of the aluminum plate assumed to be a par-
ticle with the plate weight can be evaluated with rigid-
body dynamics

F
a= ð1Þ
mal
where a is the acceleration of the plate, mal is the mass
of the plate, and the force, F, is the z-directional total
force obtained from the electromagnetic analysis.
Figure 5. The coupled analysis method. Adams2Bashforth’s two-step method7 is applied to
solve equation (1). The z-directional displacement of
the aluminum plate can be calculated with the velocity
Coupled analysis as shown below
Electromagnetic field analysis
Dt
Using ANSYS,6 the electromagnetic field analysis is vi + 1 = vi + (3ai + 1  ai ) ð2Þ
2
performed to obtain electromagnetic force. For
where ai and ai + 1 are the acceleration of the plate at
ith and (i + 1)th step; vi and vi + 1 are the velocity of
Table 1. Specification of electromagnetic pulse forming system. the plate at ith and (i + 1)th step; and D is the time
Parameters Specification increment between ith and (i + 1)th step.

System capacitance 840 mF

Charge voltages 1–10 kV Coupled analysis
Inductance 0.4 mH
Energy levels 0.42–42 kJ According to Risch,9 an electromagnetic force during
an EMF process is observed as a continuously

Table 2. Material properties and the dimensions of the FE model.

Part Electric resistivity (O m) Relative permeability Model dimension (mm) Real dimension (mm)

Coil (copper) 1.70e28 1 ID: 90, OD: 156, T: 15 140 3 105 3 15

Hole: 90 3 22
Al plate 2.82e28 1.000021 OD: 270, T: 30 195 3 295 3 30
Steel fixture 2.18e28 200
Air 1
Infinite air 1

FE: finite element.

4 Advances in Mechanical Engineering
Figure 6. The electromagnetic force with various conditions.
Figure 7. The distributed electromagnetic force on the plate.
Figure 8. Forming speed of the press.
decreasing force because of an increasing gap volume
due to deformation of workpiece. In order to obtain
the electromagnetic force accurately, the effect of the
increasing gap volume between the coil and the plate
needs to be considered. Thus, the electromagnetic
analysis and the dynamic analysis are coupled. To solve
the coupled fields, the electromagnetic force is obtained
from the electromagnetic analysis. The force is applied
to the aluminum plate and the displacement of the
plate can be calculated with the dynamics. The FE
model of the plate is changed with the new position
and the electromagnetic analysis is repeated. Figure 5
shows the coupled analysis method.
Analysis results
Electromagnetic force
Electromagnetic force is obtained with various condi-
tions. The effects of initial voltage and the mass of the
plate on the force are considered since the initial vol-
tage is related to the electromagnetic charging energy
and the mass of the plate determines the acceleration of
the plate. Figure 6 shows the electromagnetic force
applied to the aluminum plate. The force varied with
the initial voltage and the mass of the plate. First peak
force increased with the high initial voltage of 6 kV and
the lighter plate, because the displacement of the plate
increases as the mass of the plate decreases. Figure 7
shows the distribution of the electromagnetic force at
the first peak with 6 kV and 2.0 kg. The force is gener-
ated at the small region closed to the coil.
Forming speed
Because the punch is fixed on the aluminum plate,
forming speed is same as the velocity of the aluminum
plate. Figure 8 shows the forming speed with various
conditions. With the initial voltage of 6 kV and 0.5 kg
plate, forming speed of 4.3 m/s can be obtained. On the
design of the press, the mass of the aluminum plate
must be considered to obtain the certain velocity. In
addition, the capacity of the magnetic pulse power
source is important for the forming speed since EMF
force increases as the initial voltage increases as shown
in section ‘‘Electromagnetic force.’’ The forming speed
and the kinematic energy of the plate with various con-
ditions are shown in Table 3. The forming speed
depends on the weight of the aluminum plate and the
initial voltage. More speed of the aluminum plate is
expected with the lighter plate and higher initial
voltage.
Simple upset test
Simple upsetting experiments are conducted to verify
the high-speed forming press designed with the coupled
analysis. The bar-type coil and a 4.776 kg aluminum
plate are used in the simple upsetting experiments. In
the experiments, the coil with an epoxy molding is used
for insulation. The billet material is A6061-O and the
Choi et al. 5

Figure 9. Upsetting experiments with the high-speed press (the initial capacitor voltage is 5(kV)): (a) before upsetting; (b) beginning of
discharge; (c) 5/3600 s after discharge; (d) 10/3600 s after discharge; (e) 15/3600 s after discharge.

Table 3. Forming speed and kinematic energy of the moving by the high-speed motion capture camera, FASTCAM-
aluminum plate. SA4 500K-C1. Figure 9 shows sequence of the upsetting
experiment. Figure 9(a) is the picture before upsetting,
Initial capacitor Mass of the Forming Kinematic Figure 9(b) is that of the beginning discharge, and
voltage (kV) Al plate (kg) speed (m/s) energy (J) Figure 9(c)–(e) is that after 5/3600, 10/3600, and 15/
5 0.5 3.635 3.303 3600 (s), respectively. The billet is not shown in Figure
1.0 2.456 3.016 9 because that was placed in the die. The aluminum
2.0 1.508 2.274 plate starts to move with high speed after discharging
5.0 0.801 1.604 and the speed of the plate is calculated by the image
6 0.5 4.348 4.726
analysis. The results of the upsetting are shown in
1.0 3.051 4.654
2.0 1.987 3.948 Table 4. The aluminum plate speed is much higher than
5.0 1.073 2.878 those of the analysis because the higher magnetic force
is generated at the edge and the corner of the rectangle
shape coil than the smooth shape.10 For the design of
diameter of a billet is 15 mm. The ratio of the height the press, the accurate analysis with a real shape coil is
and the diameter is set to be 1. The pictures are taken required.

Table 4. Results of the upsetting experiments.

Forged billet Reduction in Initial capacitor Al-plate idle Kinematic Plastic dissipated Approx. calculated
height (%) voltage (kV) speed (m/s) energy ( J) energy ( J) speed (m/s)

1.67 3 1.9 8.62 6.25 1.62

8.00 4 3.3 26.0 30.0 3.54

18.6 5 5.4 69.63 69.9 5.41

6 Advances in Mechanical Engineering
The plastic dissipated energy can be calculated using
the forged height by neglecting elastic deforming energy
and the dissipated energy due to the friction
 
h1
Eplasic = s0 3 e 3 vol = s0 ln 3 vol ð3Þ
h0
where s0 is the flow stress, h0 and h1 are initial and
forged height of the billet, and vol is the volume of the
billet. The average flow stress of the billet is about
150 MPa.11 From the dissipated energy, an approxi-
mate calculated speed of the plate can be obtained as
shown in Table 4. Those are a good agreement with the
measured values.
Conclusion
In this article, the high-speed forming press using the
electromagnetic pulse force is designed with the coupled
analysis. Some conclusions are obtained as below. The
induced electromagnetic force is distributed on the
region closed to the coil. The forming speed depends on
the weight of the aluminum plate. More speed of the
aluminum plate is expected with the lighter plate and
higher initial capacitor voltage. The high magnetic force
is generated with the rectangle shape coil in the experi-
ment. From the upsetting experiments, the approximate
speed is calculated with the forged height.
Declaration of conflicting interests
The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with
respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this
article.
Funding
The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial sup-
port for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this
article: This work was supported by Ministry of Trade,
Industry & Energy (10062301), Korea.
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