FEA Simulation Of Roll Forming Process For Square & Rectangular Tube

Cold roll forming is an important field of sheet metal processing and a new production technology with remarkable economic benefit and society benefit. The complex processes contain many aspects like geometry, kinematics, dynamics, etc. As lack of theories, the process and mould design often rely on experience.With the development of FEA software and computer technlogy, the adoption of FEA simulation of roll forming process has had a great practical significance in the aspects of product defection prediction, process optimization and mould design.The large rectangular tube is a widely used roll forming product. It could greatly improve production efficiency and reduce the cost via one time forming. However, it also has common problems such as asymmetric round angle and instable welding quality. In the process of one time forming, there are many various calibration methods, like constant length method, constant radius method etc. In real production, the selection of calibration methods mostly relies on experience, lack of theory guidance.The paper focuses on FEA simulation of roll forming process, carries out testing to achieve correct FEA module. It shows correct module for simulation comparisons among various calibration methods and gives summaries on the features of different methods. It conducts some theoretical investigations on the selection of calibration methods, which provides reference for engineering application.The article also displays the comparison of various calibration methods, adoption of different process design methods for the large rectangular tubes of one size, and the FEA simulation analysis. There are some suggestions, based on the simulation analysis, from process design perspective to improve round angle precision.To sum up, the research and conclusions of the paper could be used as theoretical reference for problem-solving in engineering application.