Design Optimization of Roller Straightening Process for Steel Cord using Response Surface Methodology

Abstract

A roller straightening process is a metal forming technique to improve the geometric quality of products such as straightness and flatness. The geometrical quality can be enhanced by eliminating unnecessary deformations produced during upstream manufacturing processes and minimizing any detrimental internal stress during the roller straightening process. The quality of steel cords can be achieved by the roller straightening depends the process parameters. Such process parameters are the roll intermesh, the roll pitch, the diameter of rolls, the number of rolls and the applied tension. This paper is concerned with the design optimization of the roller straightening process for steel cords with the aid of elasto‐plastic finite element analysis. Effects of the process parameters on the straightness of the steel cord are investigated by the finite element analysis. Based on the analysis results, the optimization of the roller straightening process is performed by the response surface method. The roller straightening process using optimum design parameters is carried out in order to confirm the quality of the final products.