An Approach for an Innovative 3D Steel Strip Straightening Machine for Curvature and Saber Compensation

High-strength steel strip materials are usually available as strip material which is further processed in a forming process (e.g. punching-bending). For storage and transport, the material is reeled onto coils and transported to the customer. Due to the residual stresses induced by the coiling process, the subsequent component quality is influenced by the geometry of the coil and changes continuously with the coil radius. In addition, the strip material is subject to saber curvature due to the manufacturing process. Particularly for SMEs, ensuring high component quality with smaller batch sizes is a major challenge from an economic point of view. To overcome this challenge, variations in the material prior to the forming process must be compensated for with the aid of straighteners. In this project, the overall objective is to develop a novel, innovative straightener that can intelligently compensate for both bending and saber curvature as required. Both flatness errors and residual stresses are undesirable material properties that must be compensated for in the straightening process. In addition, the reciprocal bending stress of the straightening material should be minimized, since otherwise the deformation capacity for the subsequent processes and the strength will decrease. However, these two properties are important quality characteristics. For this purpose, • a completely new sensor and 3d actuator concept is going to be developed after a basic investigation. • Subsequently, a straightening strategy is going to be designed on the basis of previously performed investigations, with the goal that the straightening machine can adapt automatically to the material variations in an optimal way. • Finally, a new and innovative straightening machine, that will be capable of correcting saber and curvature defects, will be designed, built and validated.