Preface

43rd International Deep Drawing Research Group (IDDRG) Conference Sustainable Sheet Forming - Circular Economy Melbourne, Australia 1. Introduction The 43rd International Deep Drawing Research Group (IDDRG) conference was held in Melbourne, Australia, on 12–15 March. The conference was co-organised by Deakin University and the Korean Society for Technology of Plasticity. The conference chairs were: Prof. Bernard Rolfe (Deakin University), A/Prof. Matthias Weiss (Deakin University), and Prof Jeong Whan Yoon (KAIST/Deakin University). During IDDRG 2024, all engineering aspects of sheet metal forming were discussed, such as behaviour of workpiece materials, formability, tools, tribology, process robustness, simulation methods and experiments. The general theme of IDDRG 2024 was Sustainable Sheet Forming – Circular Economy. International Deep Drawing Research Group The International Deep Drawing Research Group (IDDRG) was started in the late 1950s as an organization of national groups devoted to the study of sheet metal forming including forming processes, materials, formability issues, tooling, tribology and many other interesting aspects of sheet metal forming research and industrial practices. At the IDDRG, the leading sheet metal specialists and researchers from all over the world gather for fruitful discussions on challenging technical topics in forming technology. The conference is designed to provide an open and inspiring environment for knowledge development, discussions and interactions. Conference topics The theme of the IDDRG 2024 conference was Sustainable Sheet Forming – Circular Economy. In addition to the main theme of the conference, topical sessions with the focus on the challenges and current trends in the field of sheet metal forming, such as: fossil-free steel, sustainable/advanced/smart materials, multi-material concepts/solutions, forming/formability, lightweight structures, digital transformation, digitalization, smart plants, smart press shops, cold and hot forming and trimming (incl. single and multi-step forming and trimming), tribology, simulations (incl. material models, topology optimization, tribology, springback compensation, and geometry assurance), testing, testbeds, springback, shape accuracy, geometry assurance, surface quality, tools and dies, and additive manufacturing. There were six additional mini-symposiums organised by internationally renowned experts held at IDDRG 2024: • 1. Material, Process Monitoring and Quality Control in Roll Forming Processes, organized by Matthias Weiss (Deakin University, Australia); • 2. Forming, Joining and Failure of Fuel Cell and Battery Materials, organized by Michael Pereira (Deakin University, Australia), and Jeong Yoon (KAIST/Deakin University, Korea/Australia); • 3. Machine Learning Driven Forming, organized by Hyunsung Choi (Korea Institute of Materials Science, Korea); • 4. Flexible Metal Forming, organized by Namsu Park (Korea Institute of Industrial Technology, Korea); • 5. Innovative Metal Forming Technology, organized by Professor Richard Yang (Western Sydney University, Australia); • 6. Advanced Materials Characterization, organised by Madhav Baral (University of Kentucky, USA). It was the first time to consider fuel cell and battery cell forming, however, given the global conversion to electric vehicles, it is assumed this forming topic may continue at future IDDRG conferences. List of Keynotes, Venue, Chairs, Organising committee, Scientific Committee, Editors, Number of presentations, published scientific papers/first authors, and participants, Technical/Industrial tours, Acknowledgements and Sponsors and exhibitors are available in this pdf.


Introduction
The 43 rd International Deep Drawing Research Group (IDDRG) conference was held in Melbourne, Australia, on 12-15 March.The conference was co-organised by Deakin University and the Korean Society for Technology of Plasticity.The conference chairs were: Prof .Bernard Rolfe (Deakin University), A/Prof.Matthias Weiss (Deakin University), and Prof Jeong Whan Yoon (KAIST/Deakin University).
During IDDRG 2024, all engineering aspects of sheet metal forming were discussed, such as behaviour of workpiece materials, formability, tools, tribology, process robustness, simulation methods and experiments.The general theme of IDDRG 2024 was Sustainable Sheet Forming -Circular Economy.

International Deep Drawing Research Group
The International Deep Drawing Research Group (IDDRG) was started in the late 1950s as an organization of national groups devoted to the study of sheet metal forming including forming processes, materials, formability issues, tooling, tribology and many other interesting aspects of sheet metal forming research and industrial practices.
At the IDDRG, the leading sheet metal specialists and researchers from all over the world gather for fruitful discussions on challenging technical topics in forming technology.The conference is designed to provide an open and inspiring environment for knowledge development, discussions and interactions.

Conference topics
The theme of the IDDRG 2024 conference was Sustainable Sheet Forming -Circular Economy.In addition to the main theme of the conference, topical sessions with the focus on the challenges and current trends in the field of sheet metal forming, such as: fossil-free steel, sustainable/advanced/smart materials, multi-material concepts/solutions, forming/formability, lightweight structures, digital transformation, digitalization, smart plants, smart press shops, cold and hot forming and trimming (incl.single and multi-step forming and trimming), tribology, simulations (incl.material models, topology optimization, tribology, springback compensation, and geometry assurance), testing, testbeds, springback, shape accuracy, geometry assurance, surface quality, tools and dies, and additive manufacturing.It was the first time to consider fuel cell and battery cell forming, however, given the global conversion to electric vehicles, it is assumed this forming topic may continue at future IDDRG conferences.

Keynotes
Nine keynote speeches were given by academic and industrial experts: • Professor Yannis P. Korkolis, Technical University of Dortmund, Validation and identification of constitutive models for sheet metal forming simulations

Venue
The venue for the conference was the Melbourne City campus of Deakin University: Deakin Downtown.
In total 145 participants from 17 countries attended IDDRG 2024.From these, approximately 30% of participants have industrial affiliations, 6% are from Government labs, and 64% are from academic institutes.The chart below shows the number of participants by country.
In overall, after pre-selection of the abstracts, 59 full paper submissions were made to IDDRG 2024 by 240 authors from 12 countries.Of these submissions, 52 manuscripts were selected based on single-blind reviews by the external reviewers and the scientific committee.The chart below shows the number of authors by country.

Technical/Industrial tours
Social tours were arranged for over 40 conference participants on 15 th March to tour the Great Ocean Road.Following this over 50 conference participants did a tour of Deakin University's facilities associated with manufacturing at Deakin's Waurn Ponds campus.The conference organizing committee would like to express their gratitude to all who supported IDDRG 2024, including the participants, reviewers, keynote speakers, scientific committee members, local organizing committee members and the conference sponsors and exhibitors.