Dimensional errors of rollers in the stream of variation modeling in cold roll forming process of quadrate steel tube

Abstract

In the cold roll forming process, the sheet metal strip is gradually bent into a desired profile by successive roller stations. During this process the roller locating errors of each roller station are introduced, transformed and accumulated until the sheet metal is bent into the final desired profile, which does influence the product’s dimension quality, affect the end-welding of quadrate steel tube, and elongate the costly error-and-trial phase in ramp-up. This paper introduces procedures for expressing the influence of roller locating errors in the forming process of quadrate steel tube, which is based on the formulation of the stream of variation (SOV) model of roller dimensional errors using the CAD/CAPP parameters of the cold roll forming process. The SOV model is utilized to reveal the variation propagation in the manufacturing process. The modeling process is experimentally validated in a two-station forming process.