Dogbone Punch and Die

• Deep dive into punch and die design and manufacture

• Rate of quenching based on TTT curve for O1 tools steel

• Rigidity issues with machining on a Tormach and how to resolve them

• Link to Instruction Document

• Link to Poster

I designed and manufactured a punch and die assembly to be used for making dogbone test specimens for testing on the Instron mechanical tester.  For one of the material science classes, a professor (Matt Neal) has a project where students cast their own aluminum alloys and then do some material testing to determine various characteristics and how alloying elements impact these properties.  An important property to find is the young's modulus and ultimate tensile strength, so a dogbone test specimen must be made for testing.  Previously Matt had students directly cast their alloys into a dogbone shaped mold which had a number of problems.  By casting an ingot, rolling the material to reduce its thickness, and then punching out a dogbone, a far superior test specimen is able to be produced.  Check out the Documentation and usage guide for a more in depth description of the design and manufacturing process.  Overall, it was very satisfying to design and manufacture a useful tool like this from scratch and I learned a whole lot along the way.