Jörg Heingärtner

Inline feedback control for deep drawing applications

In series production of deep drawing products the quality of the parts is significantly influenced by material scatter. To guarantee a robust manufacturing the processes are designed to have a large process window. As the different material properties can lead to a drift in the process, the press settings have to be adjusted to keep the quality. In the scope of the work a feedback control system is proposed to keep the operation point inside the process window. The blank draw-in measured in predefined points is used as the primary indicator of the expected part quality. A simulation based meta model is then used to design the control algorithm with the blank holder forces as control variable. As the draw-in measurements are carried out punctually, their positioning within the tool becomes of critical importance. A simulation based study is therefore presented for the identification of sensor positions with the highest significance in relation to the process outcome. The baseline calibration of the controller is also based on the meta model. The validation of the proposed control system is illustrated based on experiments in a production line.

Process Windows for Sheet Metal Parts based on Metamodels

Achieving robust production of deep drawn sheet metal parts is challenging. The fluctuations of process and material properties often lead to robustness problems. Numerical simulations are used to validate the feasibility and to detect critical regions of a part. To enhance the consistency with the real process conditions, the measured material data and the force distribution are taken into account. The simulation metamodel contains the virtual knowledge of a particular forming process, which is determined based on a series of finite element simulations with variable input parameters. Based on the metamodels, process windows can be evaluated for different parameter configurations. This helps improving the operating point search, to adjust process settings if the process becomes unstable and to visualize the influence of arbitrary parameters on the process window.

Q-Guard - An intelligent process control system

Stainless steel is a complex material and has properties that make it difficult to use in deep drawing processes. Because of its scattering material properties a robust process is difficult to achieve, resulting in the necessity to constantly adjust the drawing process. In order to produce parts at constantly high quality and to minimize scrap production, an intelligent control system, the Q-Guard system is implemented in production, covering the whole process chain from raw material to the finished part. This control system is presented in this contribution, with the main focus on the process control. This system is based on numeric simulations as well as material data, the process settings and draw-in measurements, all of them acquired in-line in production. Part of the data is used for a feedforward control for immediate good parts production, part of the data, like the draw-in, measured with an optical measurement system after the first draw, is used in a feedback loop. The layout of the process control and results from production runs will also be shown in this work.

Feedback control in deep drawing based on experimental datasets

In large-scale production of deep drawing parts, like in automotive industry, the effects of scattering material properties as well as warming of the tools have a significant impact on the drawing result. In the scope of the work, an approach is presented to minimize the influence of these effects on part quality by optically measuring the draw-in of each part and adjusting the settings of the press to keep the strain distribution, which is represented by the draw-in, inside a certain limit. For the design of the control algorithm, a design of experiments for in-line tests is used to quantify the influence of the blank holder force as well as the force distribution on the draw-in. The results of this experimental dataset are used to model the process behavior. Based on this model, a feedback control loop is designed. Finally, the performance of the control algorithm is validated in the production line.

Acquisition of material properties in production for sheet metal forming processes

In past work a measurement system for the in-line acquisition of material properties was developed at IVP. This system is based on the non-destructive eddy-current principle. Using this system, a 100% control of material properties of the processed material is possible. The system can be used for ferromagnetic materials like standard steels as well as paramagnetic materials like Aluminum and stainless steel. Used as an in-line measurement system, it can be configured as a stand-alone system to control material properties and sort out inapplicable material or as part of a control system of the forming process. In both cases, the acquired data can be used as input data for numerical simulations, e.g. stochastic simulations based on real world data.