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The 3D printing method is a widely used technology for industrial and domestic applications. This paper deals with the design of forming tools for sheet metal drawing made of PLA plastic, produced by the FFF 3D printing method, and used to create a lock cover part from DX56 sheet metal of 0.7 mm. First, a virtual model was created based on the pattern provided by company KERVAL a.s., which was used to design the tools' geometry and the shape of the input sheet. In addition, tensile and compression tests were performed on the PLA samples to determine their properties. The results of these tests were used to build a material model to simulate tool deformation. Then, a numerical simulation was created in the Simufact Forming software to verify the manufacturability of the part, and the suitability of the tooling geometry, and to rule out damage to the blank. In the numerical simulation, rigid and deformable tools were considered. The tools were then printed and used to verify the real pressing process. The results showed that the deformable tools were able to press the lock cover part to the required quality; however, during the forming process, there was significant damage to the tool. In conclusion, the causes of this result and recommendations for possible solutions to the problem are analysed. The use of FFF 3D printing technology can significantly reduce the development time and cost of prototype forming tools.
Keywords: Sheet metal forming, FDM/FFF, numerical simulation, PLA, stamping, Simufact Forming© This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.