Stainless steel kitchen sinks are a necessary household item

Stainless steel kitchen sinks are a necessary household item. Identify the manufacturing process associated with making kitchen sinks (excluding the faucet) and give ONE particular issue that a design engineer needs to address for this particular manufacturing process. Elaborate on the issue and explain on how to avoid it.

Solution

The kitchen sinks are usually made by deep drawing process. A sheet metal piece is taken and it is deep drawn using a die which is in the shape of the sink. the main issue in using the stainless steel is it work hardens and limit the drawability. if the sheet is drawn more than its draw ratio then a ductile fracture will happen. To overcome this issue annealing is done in the intermediate steps of drawing which will transform the metal from brittle to ductile due to work hardening.