Analysis of wear behavior of stamping tools in the production of electrical steel sheets

Rotor and stator stacks consist of laminated electrical steel sheets and represent the essential core components of an electric drive. These sheets are frequently made of non-grain-oriented electrical steel, fully finished, and produced by means of stamping. A cost efficient production requires prolonging tool life by reducing tool wear. Hence, the presented work aims at analyzing wear behavior of stamping tools in the process of stamping electrical steel sheets with baked varnish insulating coating. Based on stamping tests, a series of long-term experiments with initially sharp cutting elements made of hardened tool steel was conducted over a period of several hundred thousand punching strokes. The number of strokes was analyzed with regard to its effects upon defined abrasion parameters at the cutting edges as well as upon burr and cut surface at the produced electrical sheet.