Abstract
Various industry partners, particularly those in the automotive and aerospace industries, are continuing to grow their businesses and are seeking ways to improve their manufacturing processes. Some preliminary research has been conducted concerning the use of hybrid materials as a solution, but further analysis is required before these materials can be rolled out into industry universally. Two major benefits of potentially swapping out metal parts for hybrid (metal and composite) components are light weighting and cost reduction, which are currently two major objectives for these industries. It is imperative to understand the properties of the materials used in each manufacturing process as these properties will determine the result of each operation and ultimately the final product. A number of components are manufactured with sheet metal forming processes, and a commonly experienced, unwarranted effect is springback. Springback occurs when the die is removed following a forming operation, and the deformed part transforms its shape as a result of the elastic material properties. A component affected by springback may negatively affect future manufacturing processes, such as incorrect alignment during assembly. To further investigate a solution to this manufacturing defect, trilayer hybrid materials with metal and composite layers are considered. Due to complications resulting from the layup process in previous results, new techniques are required to eliminate delamination and gather additional springback measurements following channel bending tests. Trilayer sample compositions are composite metal composite or metal composite metal sandwiches. The layup techniques under consideration are resin plus hardener, a pillow method, and an enhanced adhesive mixture. The results from these experiments will support the movement to bring hybrid materials into manufacturing universally and will demonstrate the potential benefits of utilizing new layup techniques in the assembly of these materials.
