Development of an analytical 3D-simulation model of the levelling process

Sheet metal often shows shape defects, which is not complying with the increasing requirements for the quality of the products needed to satisfy the highest demands on finer tolerances. Due to the market's high requirements on the quality of products, new high-technology levelling machines were developed. The adjustment of these levellers is very complicated and a successful adjustment depends mainly on the experience of the line operator. As the computational power has developed over the past years, simulation becomes more important in the production process and is used in analysing the effects of leveller adjustments on the unflattened sheet metal. In this study, edge- and centre waves are investigated. In order to find a suitable adjustment of the leveller to reach a flat sheet metal, an analytical 3D simulation model has been developed using the Matlab programming environment. The sheet metal will be firstly analyzed and visualized before and after deformation. A user-friendly interface has been developed to enter the required parameters before starting the simulation. Different methods have been used to investigate the effect of the levelling process on the sheet metal and to calculate the remaining shape defects after levelling. The simulation results were validated by experiments and are represented in this paper.