Process design and parameter investigation of welded profiles by roll forming

Roll forming operation involves gradual bending of sheet material through uncoiling and passing it through sets of rollers, which are known as forming molds, to achieve the required cross-section dimensions. Some of the primary advantages of roll forming include large volume production and reduced labor requirements. Plastic deformation process is the permanent deformation of the material. The raw material deforms in the plastic deformation zone, where the material takes a non-linear route in the path of forming operation. The transition phase does not tend to be well defined, since the raw material deforms. It is therefore with difficulty that one can determine the yielding point exactly. The establishment of non-linear curve parameters is a very valuable consideration in the development of design specifications. In the present thesis, the non-linear curve of the sheet material to be shaped was generated and utilized as an input for analysis. Welded profiles can be manufactured through two processes. The first is a sequential forming process that transforms the strip into the finished form. The second process employs the tube compression method. In this case, the sheet is fed into the compression rollers in the form of a tube. The tube is then formed continuously through the compression method between the rollers. In this thesis, the process design of the designed as the primary structural component of the excavator cabin was examined.In the process design carried out using the roll form compression technique, compression ratio optimization as well as process design and strip width optimizations for tube profile production were investigated. The optimization process was conducted with FEA analysis.