Alain Col is simply one of the best experts and scientists in the domain of the metal forming, former President of the IDDRG (International Deep-Drawing research group, main scientific and technical conference for the stamping specialists all over the world), consulting expert for ArcelorMittal, author of the multiple articles concerning metal forming processes. His figure is truly unique: he is a Frenchman, whose works and experience are very highly estimated by Germans, Japanese and American metal formers; those are the nations which give the biggest share in the development of the metal forming processes (despite the fact that French metal forming school is rather behind them). His huge experience is capitalized in the fundamental work «Sheet metal forming of steels» (Emboutissage des aciers, 2010: https://www.amazon.com/Lemboutissage-aciers-Alain-Col/dp/2100520903). This book covers all the domains of knowledge required for process engineer, try-out expert, toolmaker or designer, who is working in the metal forming metier: from metallurgy and metal science to the mechanics and tribology; from the principles of computer simulation of drawing process to the ways of die hardening; from the reasons of metal forming failures to the skin part defects… Mainly it deals with the theoretical information and data, however, each chapter shows well how this “theory” can truly help in the search of the practical solutions. This is the basic feature of that book: despite the fact that there are not so many concrete remedies to the issues found in the shop on a daily basis, the methodology of Alain Col allows you to search and find lots of practical recipes and enrich your experience, advancing in deep understanding of the stamping process. All the described practical solutions in this blog are based on the methods taken from this book (for those who is following my blog, you can remember the links in the material about the springback: https://tttttt.me/metalformingforall/9). The book is written in the graceful and accessible manner in French; for many of you it can be the real obstacle if you don’t speak French... but I can testify and assure you personally that it’s worth to learn French to start reading it – or you can learn it in the reading process (I had been doing it that way). Moreover, Alain Col is a stalwart supporter of the English as an international language in metal forming, and for all the enumerated definitions and abbreviations he himself gives the correct English translation; at the end of the book man can find the mini-dictionary of the main stamping terms. It’s no surprise as Alain has been constantly using English for the conversations with his colleagues – outstanding scientists and engineers from USA, Germany and Japan. What can be a real surprise is that this book was actually written for the Frenchmen, and its main message is to enlighten and develop the French school of metal forming, to overcome the situation of Alain who is standing almost alone from his country on the world level in this domain… It’s for that reason he has started to capitalize and spread his experience; but in fact his book fits perfectly to Russians, Arabs, Romanians etc. - as it were written specially for us, and everyone can feel it! Perhaps this is how the best works look like (from literature or music to the narrow scientific areas): accessible, enlightening and inspiring. I sincerely recommend you this book as well as the articles and scientific works of Alain Col. #рецензии #in_English

​​The new Peugeot 308 (2021) has created the certain hype by its bold design. In some articles it is characterized as the symbol of “germanization” of the brand, and rather in direction towards BMW than VAG (https://www.challenges.fr/automobile/nouveautes/germanisation-manifeste-pour-la-peugeot-308-qui-vise-le-premium_756227). Well, of course it’s all in the eye of the beholder. But what has really attracted me, it’s the design of stamped steel body side outer panel of this car (see photo below): I’ve seen such sharp style lines and abrupt relief patterns before only at Bentley Continental GT, but its body sides are produced by special and very expensive process called SPF – Superforming (https://tttttt.me/metalformingforall/30; https://tttttt.me/metalformingforall/32). To get such shape without SPF, it’s very likely that man uses the re-drawing operation, it means that in such cases the special die is launched, which shape copies the shape of draw die except the sharp radii unfeasible for drawing from the 1st stroke; so on that re-draw die such radii are indeed sharper but feasible for re-drawing. According to my sources, the very first time when re-drawing was applied for skin panels was the case of hood outer panel for Volkswagen Passat CC; for the affordable cars it was widely adopted by Groupe Renault. However, from what I know, the re-drawing has been never applied for the body sides before, and so the Groupe PSA are real pioneers in this domain. From the eye view of the pure profit such re-drawing means the more expensive die sets and more time required for part production (in our case it’s very probably that 4 operations-dies turned into 5), but from the point of view of customer... I let you judge by yourselves ​​​​​​(русская версия здесь: https://tttttt.me/metalformingforall/284). #benchmarking #in_English