Experimental Studies on the Effect of Different Field Shaper Geometries on Magnetic Pulse Crimping in Cylindrical Configuration

Copper-aluminum composite rods are a substitution for copper rods, result in both cost and weight reduction. The electromagnetic pulsed crimping technique, which is based on high-velocity impact, offers many advantages by utilizing a part of total stored energy on the capacitor bank to fabricate composite rods. The application of field shaper in electromagnetic pulsed crimping not only increases the effectiveness of the process but also increases the life or strength of the working coil. The effect of geometry of three types of field shaper on the plastic deformation of the composite rod was investigated to facilitate the field shaper design. The field shaper variation was done by changing the cross-section namely tapered, step-tapered, and stepped. It was found that the step-tapered field shaper results better in terms of uniformity in crimp quality, joint strength in compression, joint strength in tension, joint electrical resistance, joint leakage, and surface finish of the crimped sample among the three types of field shaper. This work will be of use for designing of field shaper for producing joint by electromagnetic pulsed crimping.