Sheet Hydroforming Research And Development Of Monitoring And Management System

Sheet metal hydroforming is advanced metal forming technology. It is developed vigorously and applied widely in automobile, aerospace and kitchen health equipment manufacturing fields etc in recent years. It has characteristics such as low die cost, short manufacturing cycle and high forming limit. Compared with traditional technologies, the parts manufactured in hydroforming have high precision and good surface quality, so it is suitable to process sheet parts with complex shape and high precision.Hydroforming is still at the explorative stage, whether in theory or in practice. In order to further enhance the level of understanding hydroforming technology, to promote hydroforming equipment development and to reduce disparity with overseas in this domain, it is extremely essential to strengthen and improve the software and hardware directly related to hydroforming.This thesis analyzes the computer monitoring and management system application in the current industrial production and aiming at hydroforming, proposes two levels of DCS design thought based on the PLC, which uses PC taking on upper computer and PLC taking on lower computer to compose an upper- lower control system. This plan is modular design widely applied in the industry control system that has "the decentralized control, the centralized management" merit so as to greatly enhance the reliability and the management level of this king of system, to improve the production efficiency.Firstly, serial communication between computer and PLC through the PLC programming port is solved, so the useful data can be promptly and accurately reflected to PC in the process, that is the foundation of man-machine interactive. Secondly, the upper computer monitor, control and data management modules are developed by VC++. Finally, PLC program is redesigned to enable it to accept the upper computer's control and order, and to carry out tasks that the upper computer issues.The monitoring and management system of sheet metal hydroforming has hydrostatic machine movement control, process selection, process monitoring, empiricaldatum management function etc. Forming force and pressure-pad force curve can be conveniently selected or established in upper computer then loop-locked controlling those periphery hydraulic systems will be realized by PLC. In forming process, scene pressure variation is dynamically displayed on the upper computer' screen and can be compared with prearranged curve.In conclusion the research and development of monitoring and management system of sheet metal hydroforming improves and promotes the research method of hydroforming and realizes intellectualization, automation, information and flexibility in the hydroforming process.