I always read what Pete Ulintz writes. His latest article in Metalforming Magazine (metalformingmagazine.com/magazine/article/?/2018/9/1/Finding_Solutions_for_Wear) is on tooling wear when forming stainless and aluminum.
A few additional comments from my experience:
A) Your metal supplier may be able to provide you coils with the PE/PVC coating already applied.
B) You might need to adjust your forming approach. I’ve worked with parts where the polymer coating was ripped off when going through the draw beads and that balled up dirt restricted metal flow.
C) D2 is usually a bad choice for forming stainless steels into parts with even moderate complexity. Chromium in D2 + Chromium in stainless steel = galling.
Pete’s also one of the best speakers/teachers that’s out there. You can hear him and others in Nashville on Sept 12/13: https://www.pma.org/home/event.asp?productID=68844416
dannyeqs
Bill Frahm
Thanks Dan … I enjoy reading Pete’s articles and in particular ones that involve lubrication and wear… a subject near and dear to my heart. Forming lubricants for aluminum are very different than for steel. I think that a solid film lubricant (wax or polymer) may be preferential to a polymer sheet. Also from my experience cleaning drawn aluminum parts effectively may require an acid rinse after alkali wash to improve appearance.