Optimization and efficient process design of flexible roller beading

• Applicant: Professor Dr.-Ing. Peter Groche
• Subject Area: Primary Shaping and Reshaping Technology, Additive Manufacturing
• Term: since 2022
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 501199248

Ever shorter product life cycles demand increased manufacturing flexibility due to increasing product diversity. Coupled with increasing ecological awareness and the associated political climate targets, this motivates the use of individual components with geometries designed for specific applications. The shift from conventional mass production to mass customization represents an important feature of the current trend in the industrial manufacturing landscape. This shift, together with Industry 4.0 approaches, demands new and further development of manufacturing technologies. In addition to the production of different product variants on one system without tool changes, flexible processes also enable the manufacture of load-oriented components with efficient material utilization. In forming technology, or more precisely in profile production, load-adapted component design can be achieved by varying material thicknesses, cross-sectional shapes and cross-sectional profiles. This constructive lightweight design has been advanced on the research side, resulting in various roll forming technologies for the realization of flexible sheet metal profiles, all of which, however, have limitations in terms of geometric flexibility or cost-effectiveness.In the previous DFG project "Manufacturing multi-directional expanded profiles", the "flexible rolled beading" manufacturing process was developed and implemented. The novel forming process enables the continuous production of profiles with individually designable, application-oriented height-varying cross-sections. The expansion of design freedom in profile construction enables the substitution of existing components, for example in car bodies, by profiles with variable heights. In previous project, the practical prerequisites were created through the realization of a prototypical test facility. From the numerically determined stress and strain distributions and the findings of experimental studies, component defects were identified which represent the process limits. The aim of the research project is to establish the application-oriented basis for achieving industrial acceptance of the process flexible roller beading. To achieve this goal, the process will be optimized in terms of tool design and process control. In addition, practicable methods for efficient process and component design, which are based on analytical models, will be developed and validated.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants