Influence of varying static characteristics of roll forming passes on profile geometry and reproduction processes.

The roll forming process represents one of the main shares on the global production of sheet metal products. Due to reduced batch sizes and delivery times, demanded by the current market, an increase in efficiency and flexibility needs to be implemented. Since set-up processes are time-consuming, they need to be optimised to meet these goals. The aim of this paper is to study the impact of variations of mechanical characteristics of a standard roll forming mill in reproduction processes. Experiments and simulations are used to derive the reasons for these variations. Different individual characteristics in rigidity and play lead to different values of geometric features of a produced profile. Additionally, the interconnection between tool adjustments prior to the production line, the sheet response, tool behaviour and resulting work points in the process could be identified. This helps to gain a deeper understanding of the process and forms the basis to develop efficient geometric reproduction processes for recurring profile geometries. Subsequently effort on a roll forming machine in changeover processes is reduced without the need to integrate additional sensors in such a machine. [Display omitted] • Roll forming passes do have significant scatter in play and stiffness. • Scatter in behaviour of passes can be widely explained by manufacturing tolerances. • Existing scatter of pass characteristics lead to varying profile geometries. • Prediction of tool gap and forces by knowledge of pass behaviour possible. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]