Earing is a type of defect characterized by the formation of wavy projections — called "ears" — on the rim of a drawn cup.
It is most commonly observed in the deep drawing process, where a flat metal sheet is drawn into a forming die to produce cup-like structures.
This defect is primarily caused due to:
- Anisotropy in the sheet metal
- Variation in yield strength in different directions (rolling vs transverse)
These variations lead to non-uniform flow during drawing, causing certain regions to rise higher (form ears) and others lower.
Other forming operations like rolling, forging, and extrusion do not typically produce this type of edge deformation.