Research on forming effect of material with different thickness structure in continuous flexible rolling process

Abstract

Continuous flexible rolling is a novel advanced manufacturing technology for vehicle body surface, the forming mechanism of this process is based on the uneven thickness reduction of rolled plate along the transversal direction. In the rolling forming process, working hardening is always an important factor for affecting thickness reduction of rolled plate. In this work, the method of decreasing working hardening was studied deeply in continuous flexible rolling process for 3D surface. By finite element analysis, the forming effect of metal plate with different thickness structure was studied in continuous flexible rolling process. The rolled plate consists of three piece of metal plate; in the comparing experiments, the total thickness of rolled plate is 3mm, from compression surface to tension surface, the thickness ratio of each layer metal plate is 1:1:1, 1:2:2, 2:1:2, 2:2:1 in order. The results show that: with the location of the thinnest metal plate moves down, plastic strain in the middle surface of rolled plate is increasing greatly, the thickness reduction is also improving significantly, and the thickness distribution is almost unchanged. Therefore, to optimize rationally the thickness structure is an effective method to decreasing working hardening, the forming precision of 3D surface can get improving in continuous flexible rolling process.