Analysis of roller hemming process for a vehicle tailgate closure

Abstract

Hemming is a sheet metal joining process which is widely used for vehicle closures. As the latest hemming process type, the roller hemming process uses industrial robots therefore; main advantage of the process is achieved as flexibility with improved product quality. Trial and error method is the general approach to design the process in the industry due to limited know-how in the roller hemming. However, due to advantages of the process, the recent studies have also been focused on numerical simulations. In this study, the roller hemming process of the tailgate of a vehicle has been investigated by using the finite element method. The points of interest are selected as cycle time reduction and reducing the undesired wrinkling formation in the process. In the current roller hemming process of the tailgate, three stages including two pre-hemming and one final hemming stages are being applied. For the cycle time reduction, simulations have been performed to complete the hemming process in two stages. Effects of the roller geometry and the bending angle pairs have been investigated. The hemming process with two stages has been shown numerically to be applicable by considering the final geometry of the product and the maximum stress and strain values occurred during the process. The wrinkling formation is reduced by using a roller with larger diameter in the simulations. Then, verifications of the simulations have been done by implementing of the process. As a result of the study, approximately 33% reduction in the cycle time and 50% increase in the productivity of the tailgate have been successfully achieved in addition to reduction in the wrinkling formation during the pre-hemming stage.