Description
P 1273 – Development of an intelligent setup assistance system for straightening units to extend the process limits of processing high-strength wire materials
In the steel processing sector, small and medium-sized companies with fewer than 100 employees dominate the corporate landscape by 79 % . The companies generate revenues of 79.8 billion euros, of which around 43 % is accounted for by semi-finished products such as cold-rolled strip, drawn wire and sheet metal and forgings, [BMW15]. These precursors are generally shipped as strip material, coiled on coils. Economical further processing in a high-wage country like Germany is only possible with a high degree of automation in production. The material properties of the semi-finished product vary along the length of the coil. This affects the geometry, hardness, modulus of elasticity, pre-curvature and yield strength. These variations are countered by the development of an intelligent self-correcting straightener. This can react to semi-finished product fluctuations during the process. In order to be able to detect these fluctuations online, during the process, investigations have been carried out into sensor and actuator technology. In particular, the developed online measurement of the wire curvature enables a straightening strategy adapted to the fluctuations/changes of the semi-finished product.
From this, a design system for the newly developed intelligent self-correcting straightener has been developed. Through fundamental experimental and numericalinvestigations, a basis was created with a validated numerical model in order to be able to identify relevant process parameters. These process parameters could be investigated in isolation, whereby it was shown, for example, that the deformation capacity could be maximized for the subsequent process by applying a straightening strategy of the semifinished product optimized with a few alternating bends. As a result, the competitiveness of steel compared with nonferrous metals can be significantly strengthened by this process due to the maximized remaining formability.
Published in:
2021
Authors:
Prof. Dr.-Ing. habil. A. Trächtler, Prof. Dr.-Ing. W. Homberg
