METAL FORMING TEACHING USING PLASTICINE

Metal forming is an important subject for students due to its direct application to the automotive, aviation, and other industries. The best way to comprehend many of the key principles in metal forming is through hands-on learning, rather than traditional classroom techniques. At Ben-Gurion University, a unique laboratory was established to help teach metal forming curriculum. In this laboratory, metal forming processes are illustrated using plasticine as a metal substance formed by 3D nylon printed tools. Vaseline is used as the prime lubricant in order to demonstrate the influence of friction in metalworking. The metal forming operation forces are directly measured. The students find very good correlations between calculated forces according to the theoretical equations and the actual measured forces. The strain distributions of different forming processes are evaluated using thin layers of colored plasticine. The strain distributions are calculated by measuring the change in thickness of the colored layers along the workpiece. The students validate the strain distribution of different tool geometries or measure friction in comparison to numerical simulations of those processes.
It was found that students that experienced "metal" forming laboratory using plasticine, have a better understanding of metal forming processes, and have a better confidence in theory as it was practice using plasticine