• Transactions of Materials Processing
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.27-34
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• 2008

In order to manufacture a doubly curved sheet metal, the incremental roll forming process which adopts advantages such as the flexibility of the incremental forming process and continuous bending deformation of the roll forming process has been experimentally investigated. An experimental equipment was developed which was named as unit roll set (URS) consisting of two pairs of support rolls and an upper center roll. The upper roll equipped with the servo control unit is motor-driven and can be positioned in the vertical direction according to the user's commands. Four support rolls are idle, and they freely rotate only along the axis so as to transfer the plate more stably in the tangential direction of the rotation of the driving roll. In the process, the plate is deformed incrementally as deformation proceeds simultaneously in longitudinal and transverse directions. Through the experiments using URS, information regarding to forming schedules is found out to fabricate curved hull plates. This study demonstrates the further application of the incremental roll forming process in shipbuilding industries.