Abstract In press forming, wrinkling and cracking must be avoided in the production of high-quality products. This can be achieved by decreasing the coefficient of friction between the sheet metal and the die. As such, using ultrasonic vibration, which involves wave at frequencies of over 20 kHz, is one way to avoid this unfavorable phenomenon. In the present paper, the validity of theoretical analysis and numerical simulation through stick vibration analysis is demonstrated by theoretical analysis, numerical simulations and an experiment. In addition, the results of a numerical simulation of deep drawing are presented. The effect of ultrasonic vibration is shown herein to decrease the coefficient of friction between the sheet metal and the die for press forming.