Spring Back Compensation

Due to the plastic-elastic characteristic of a metals it is typical that any deformation of sheet metal at room temperature will have both elastic and plastic deformation. After the metal work piece is removed from the tool or deformation implement that the elastic deformation will be released and only the plastic deformation remain. When a metal forming tool is planned and designed to deform a work piece, the shape imparted by the tool will be a combination of elastic and plastic deformation, the release of the elastic deformation is the spring back often observed at the end of a metal forming process. The spring back has to be compensated to achieve an accurate result. Usually that is realized by overbending the material correspondent to the magnitude of the spring back. That means for the practical side of the bending process, the bending former enters deeper into the bending prism.

For other sheet metal forming operations like drawing it entails deforming the sheet metal passed the planned net shape of the part, so that when springback is released from the part, the plastic deformation in that part delivers the desired shape of the part. In the case of complex tools the spring back has to be already considered in the engineering and construction phases. Therefore complex software simulations are used. Frequently this is not enough to deliver the desired results. In such cases practical experiments are done, using the trial-and-error plus experience method to correct the tool. However the results (workpieces) are only stable, if all influencing factors are the same.[1]

This mainly includes:

The list of factors can be continued.

Practical Example: Electronic bending tools with spring-back compensation

Electronic Bending Tool with integrated angle measurement and spring-back compensation

The electrical industry mostly uses flat materials of copper and aluminium producing equipment for the electrical industry, especially switchgear and busbar production. Properties between two different charges of those materials vary strongly having a critical influence on the dimensions.

Already in the 60's Dieter Ehrt invented the bending technology for flat material which measures each bend angle and provides spring back compensation. This gives the bend angle of flat materials true accuracy.

This is attained by using bending prisms with electronic angular measurement technology. The principle is easy, but smart: While bending two flat bolds supporting the material turn around. The bolds are directly connected to the anglular sensors. A computer or rather the machine control then calculates the required final stroke. The spring back of every bend is compensated regardless of material type.

If the measuring accuracy is 0.1º, a high angle accuracy of +/- 0.2º is achieved instantly with the first work piece without any rework. Because no adjustments are required, material waste amounts and setup times drop considerably. Even inconsistencies within a single piece of material are automatically adjusted.

See also

References

  1. ↑ Optimierung der Produkt- und Prozessentwicklung. ETH Zürich. 1999. p. 67. ISBN 3728126969.
This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Friday, June 26, 2015. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.