• Transactions of Materials Processing
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.12-20
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• 2016

Press machines and dies are commonly used for 3D curved sheet forming. Using conventional die forming can cause economic problems since various modifications of the die shape are required depending on the product shape. Various types of flexible forming such as multi-point dieless forming (MDF), flexible incremental roll forming have been developed to improve the needed process flexibility. Although MDF can reduce the production cost using reconfigurable dies, it still has significant material loss. Drawbacks such as wrinkling, dimpling, and forming errors can also occur despite continuous investigations to mitigate these defects. A novel sheet forming process for 3D curved surfaces, a flexibly-reconfigurable roll forming (FRRF), has been recently proposed to overcome the economic and technical limitations of current practice. FRRF has no limitation on blank size in the longitudinal direction, and also minimizes or eliminates forming defects such as wrinkling and dimpling. Feasibility studies of FRRF have been conducted using FE simulations for multi-curved shapes and various sheet thicknesses. Therefore, the fabrication of a FRRF apparatus is required for any follow-up studies. In the current study, experiments with reconfigurable rollers were conducted using a simple design pre-FRRF apparatus prior to fabricating the full size FRRF apparatus. There are three candidates for the reconfigurable roller: a bar-type shaft, a flexible shaft, a ground flexible shaft. Among these candidates, the suitable reconfigurable roller for FRRF is determined through various forming tests.

• Transactions of Materials Processing
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.103-109
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• 2014

Flexibly-reconfigurable roll forming (FRRF), which is a sheet forming process for multi-curved sheet metal, may solve both the economic and technical problems incurred in using a conventional die forming process. In the FRRF process, the multi-curved sheet metal is formed by different strain distributions on the sheet metal, and the reconfigurable rollers are used as tools during the forming. Therefore, a thorough investigation focused on the reconfigurable rollers is required for the realization of the FRRF process prior to the fabrication of FRRF machine. In the current study, a series of finite element simulations were conducted to study the load distributions experienced by the reconfigurable roller. In order to verify the shape design variables, the effect of the metal thickness on the curvatures of sheet is also presented.