Testing new tribo-systems for sheet metal forming of advanced high strength steels and stainless steels

Testing of new tribo-systems in sheet metal forming has become an important issue due to new legislation, which forces industry to replace current, hazardous lubricants. The present paper summarizes the work done in a recent PhD project at the Technical University of Denmark on the development of a methodology for off-line testing of new tribo-systems for advanced high strength steels and stainless steels. The methodology is presented and applied to an industrial case, where different tribo-systems are tested. A universal sheet tribotester has been developed, which can run automatically repetitive Bending Under Tension tests. The overall results show that the methodology ensures satisfactory agreement between laboratory tests and production tests, although disagreement can occur, if tribological conditions are not the same in the two cases.