Adaptive Roll-Forming Rollers for Variable Hat Beam Flanges
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing roll-forming machines face challenges in forming hat beams with varying central flange curvature or inclination, leading to undesired bending stresses and limitations in forming beams with small central flange widths.
Innovation Solution
The roll-forming machine incorporates individually displaceable clamping rollers controlled by an electronic device to maintain a perpendicular plane through their center axes, allowing for adaptive positioning to accommodate curvature or inclination of the central flange, ensuring no bending stresses are induced and enabling the formation of hat beams with small central flange widths.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If fixed clamping rollers are used to clamp the central flange, then the structure is simple and stable, but the machine cannot accommodate varying central flange curvature or inclination, leading to undesired bending stresses
Solution Approach 1:
The clamping rollers of the second pair are made individually displaceable in vertical and horizontal directions during the forming operation, transforming the static clamping system into a dynamic one that can adapt to varying central flange curvature and inclination without inducing bending stresses
Solution Approach 2:
An electronic control device continuously monitors the position and orientation of the central flange and automatically adjusts the displacement of the clamping rollers to maintain the plane through their center axes perpendicular to the central flange, creating a closed-loop control system
2Adaptability or versatility
If fixed clamping rollers are used, then the device structure is simple, but the machine cannot form hat beams with small central flange widths
Solution Approach 1:
The individually displaceable clamping rollers can adjust their positions to accommodate different central flange widths, enabling the machine to form hat beams with small central flange widths that would be impossible with fixed rollers
3Reliability
If the clamping rollers are made displaceable to accommodate curvature, then bending stresses are prevented, but the control system becomes more complex
Solution Approach 1:
The electronic control device uses feedback from sensors monitoring the central flange position and orientation to automatically adjust clamping roller displacement, ensuring the plane through the rollers' center axes remains perpendicular to the central flange and preventing bending stresses
Data Source
AI summary
Roll-forming machine for forming, from a flat sheet metal strip (5), a hat beam which has a profile that varies along its length. The machine comprises several consecutively arranged forming stations, each of which comprising a first pair of clamping rollers (22a, 22b) for clamping a side flange (3a) of the hat beam and a second pair of clamping rollers (23a, 23b) for clamping a central flange (2) thereof. The clamping rollers of said second pair are individually displaceable in vertical direction and horizontally in the feeding direction of the sheet metal strip. The displacement of the clamping rollers (23a, 23b) of said second pair is controlled by an electronic control device during a forming operation such that a plane that goes through the centre axes (CA3, CA4) of both these clamping rollers is maintained perpendicular to the part of the central flange (2) received in the nip (31) between these clamping rollers.