Development of Flexible-Tailored Aluminum Sheet

Aluminum alloys are good candidates for light-weight materials, suitable for car bodies. However, it is difficult to produce high strength aluminum alloy which has good formability. A new rolling technology has been developed which can control the cladding ratio along the rolling direction. This is called "Flexible tailored blank Technology". It can realize the designed distribution of the strength and the thickness. In this paper, some prototype equipment is introduced, and also the prediction method of the cladding ratio, and the result of mechanical properties in the laboratory.