The application of computational and experimental techniques to metal deformation in cold roll forming

Abstract Cold roll forming is a continuous process of bending metals in a straight line using successive pairs of rotating tools without changing the material thickness. Traditionally the design of forming rolls relies mainly on the experience of the designer. Only little consideration is given to the behaviour of the material during the design process. The paper demonstrates that most of the guesswork in form roll design can be eliminated with sufficient knowledge of strains in the workpiece. It is shown that simulation of the cold roll forming process using finite element analysis has proved promising and the resulting models are in agreement with experimental design data. Furthermore, the way in which Computer Vision techniques can be applied in calculating plastic strains which, in turn, can be used for verification of the results predicted by finite element simulations and strain gauge measurements is described.