RIS ID
86640
Abstract
Millipede Forming is an innovative sheet metal forming approach that has been proposed and developed in Australia. U-channels, Z-channels or tubular products can be made by Millipede Forming. While a strip moves through an optimal transitional surface between the entry to exit of a forming stand, the redundant longitudinal membrane strain can be significantly reduced compared to the conventional roll forming, which is the essential principle to obtaining high quality products. The incremental forming process studied has demonstrated major advantages on space efficiency, power consumption and materials sensitivities. The purpose of this study is to investigate the effects of main geometrical parameters and their optimization, in order to minimize the redundant longitudinal strains into elastic to avoid the redundant plastic deformations at flange during forming. In this study, a mild-steel U-channel sample with 10 mm flange width, fabricated by Millipede Forming in a forming length of 200 mm has been studied. Theoretical longitudinal membrane strains at profile's edge of different transitional surfaces and downhill pass are also analyzed. The results showed that obtaining an optimal transitional surface is essential and necessary in controlling the peak longitudinal strain to an acceptable amount and that by increasing downhill pass, longitudinal strain can be significantly reduced. The optimized transitional surface and downhill pass flow were simulated by Abaqus, and the peak longitudinal strain was finally less than 0.2% through a very short forming length of 200 mm. The results prove that Millipede Forming can achieve a better product quality in a much shorter forming distance than conventional roll forming.
Publication Details
Kong, L., Tang, D., Ding, S. & Zhang, Y. (2014). Geometrical and FEA study on Millipede Forming. AIP Conference Proceedings (1567): The 9th International Conference and Workshop on Numerical Simulation of 3D Sheet Metal Forming Processes (pp. 860-863). Australia: AIP.