Research on continuous roll forming for manufacturing 3D curved surface parts with variable transverse curvatures

Abstract

A flexible and precise forming technology for die-less, small-lot manufacture of 3D curved surface sheet metal parts is urgently required. Continuous roll forming (CRF) is a novel technique for generation of 3D curved surface rolls bending by two flexible rolls. In CRF process, the two flexible rolls are positioned vertically to form curved configurations and non-uniform roll gap. Then 3D curved surface parts with different transverse and longitudinal curvatures can be obtained by adjusting the configurations of the flexible rolls and the distribution of the roll gap. In this study, the CRF process was used to manufacture 3D curved surface part with variable transverse curvature instead of constant transverse curvature. The forming mechanism of CRF was proposed, the method to design configurations of the upper and lower flexible rolls was presented, and its validity was verified by simulation and experiment.