The International Journal of Advanced Manufacturing Technology (2019) 104:4049–4061

https://doi.org/10.1007/s00170-019-04104-3

ORIGINAL ARTICLE

Development of a symmetrical four-roller bending process

Gaochao Yu 1,2 & Jun Zhao 1,2 & Changfu Xu 1,2

Received: 25 December 2018 / Accepted: 7 July 2019 / Published online: 29 July 2019
# Springer-Verlag London Ltd., part of Springer Nature 2019

Abstract
In order to reduce the straight edge section and simplify process flow, a new symmetrical four-roller bending process is proposed,
and its optimum forming process is determined. The main procedure composes of feeding, pre-bending, reverse roll bending,
final bending, positive roll bending, unloading, and springback. It has advantages of less production procedure, small remaining
straight edge, and simple equipment structure. Three methods are adopted to study the process, i.e., theoretical analysis, numer-
ical simulation, and physical experiment. According to the theory of elastoplastic and geometric relation, the relationship between
the reduction of the upper roller and the curvature radius before and after springback is established, and the reduction of the upper
roller can be predicted. The symmetrical four-roller bending process is simulated by ABAQUS software. The distribution of
stress and strain is analyzed, and the theoretical curvature radius and the simulated curvature radius are compared. The rolling part
is obtained from simulation with an ovality of 0.43% and only 1.5 times the thickness of the remaining straight edge. The
symmetrical four-roller bending machine is designed, and the ovality of the rolling part from experiment is less than 5%, and the
minimum is only 1.74%. The error of most curvature radius is less than 0.5%. Numerical simulation and physical experiments
both prove the feasibility of the method. The effect of the process parameters on the curvature after springback is studied by a
single variable method. This process provides a new idea for pipe production and helps improve the rolling quality.

Keywords Thin-walled pipe . Four-roller bending . Four-point bending . Springback . Numerical simulation . Process parameters

1 Introduction
Roll bending is a common bending forming process, which
can turn sheet metal into conical, cylindrical, and other curved
parts. Its advantages include high production efficiency, sav-
ing materials, low production cost, and no special mold, and it
has been widely used in oil, shipbuilding, nuclear power, pres-
sure vessels, pipeline transportation, and other fields.
In recent years, many scholars have carried out a lot of
research on the mechanical model, numerical simulation,
and optimization of process parameters on all kinds of roll
bending process. The roll bending process is divided into
two-roller, three-roller, and four-roller bending process by
the number of rollers, as shown in Figs. 1, 2, and 3.

* Gaochao Yu Three-roller bending There is a straight section at the end of

gch_yu@ysu.edu.cn the plate in the symmetrical three-roller bending process; the
pre-bending is necessary before bending. Gandhi et al. [1] and
Jun Zhao Zhang et al. [2] developed the mathematical model of the pre-
zhaojun@ysu.edu.cn bending, which provides the theoretical guidance for pre-
Changfu Xu bending. Hu and Wang [3] adopted the upper limit element
xuchangfu@ysu.edu.cn method and the lower limit element method to establish a
1
roller bending model, which not only solved the defects of
Key Laboratory of Advanced Forging & Stamping Technology and
the traditional roller bending but also improved the forming
Science, (Yanshan University), Ministry of Education of China,
Qinhuangdao 066004, People’s Republic of China flexibility. Gandhi et al. [4] and Fu et al. [5] proposed the
2 analytical modeling and the empirical modeling of top roller
College of Mechanical Engineering, Yanshan University, No.438,
Hebei Street, Haigang District, Qinhuangdao P.O. Box 066004, position for three-roller cylindrical bending of plates and op-
People’s Republic of China timized the process parameters. In order to study the dynamic
4050
Fig. 1 Two-roller bending process
process of the three-roller bending, Zeng et al. [6] and Ktari
et al. [7] built the simulation model and analyzed the distribu-
tion of residual stress and equivalent plastic deformation.
Quan et al. [8] established the theoretical model and finite
element model of the heat-assisted three-roller bending pro-
cess, which effectively reduced the forming force. Chudasama
et al. [9] built an analytical model to predict the bending force
in the three-roller conical bending process. Feng et al. [10, 11]
carried out the numerical simulation and physical experiments
about the three-roller bending, including the symmetrical roll-
er bending process with cylindrical rolls and conical rolls,
asymmetrical three-roll bending process. In order to obtain
the high precision pipe, Yu et al. [12, 13] established a me-
chanical model for adjusting the roundness by the three-roller
bending, expounded the principle of adjusting the roundness,
and realized the prediction of the reduction of the upper roller.
Four-roller bending Hua et al. [14, 15] discussed the effective
deformation zone and the mechanisms on the four-roll bend-
ing process and established the mathematical models of the
internal bending moment on the thin-wall plate in the multi-
pass four-roll bending and in the single-pass four-roll bending.
Gu et al. [16] presented a finite element model of roll bending
Fig. 2 Three-roller bending process
Int J Adv Manuf Technol (2019) 104:4049 4061
Fig. 3 Four-roller bending process
of grid sheet to predict springback and spot weld failure in the
four-roll bending of grid sheet. Gao et al. [17] analyzed the
force and deformation conditions and established the equation
of deflection curve after springback in the four-roll bending
process. Sun et al. [18, 19] built the modeling, studied the
plate bending mechanism and precision control method, and
analyzed the process parameters in the four-roll bending
process.
Two-roller bending Yan et al. [20, 21] analyzed the two-roller
bending process for the circular section tube and the flexible
two-roller forming mechanism for the special-shaped section
tube, deduced the springback equation, and corrected it, and
the automatic control model is established. Yu et al. [22] used
MARC software to establish the finite element model of two-
axis flexible bending process and analyzed the main influenc-
ing factors. Zhu [23] proposed an experimental method to
predict the forming force in the two-roller bending process.
Gong et al. [24] analyzed the distribution of stress and strain,
deformation, the relationship between the curvature radius of
workpiece and the diameter of rigid shaft, and the relationship
Rp
Rd
Fig. 4 The principle of symmetrical four-roller bending process
Int J Adv Manuf Technol (2019) 104:4049 4061 4051

Fig. 5 The symmetrical four-roller bending process

between the curvature radius and the size of strip. Li et al. [25]
obtained the forming force on 301 stainless steel strip with
different hardness in the two-roller bending process.
The two-roller bending process is not suitable for forming
the pipe with a thick plate or with much larger radius than the
rigid roller [23]. The main problem of the three-roller bending
is the large remaining straight edge and the need for pre-
bending procedure [26]. The traditional four-roller bending
machine has a complex structure and is difficult to debug
and maintain [14]. In order to reduce the straight edge section
and simplify process flow, a new symmetrical four-roller
bending process is put forward in this paper. According to
the elastic-plastic theory and geometric relationship, the rela-
tionship between the upper roller reduction and the curvature
radius before and after springback is established, and the pre-
diction of the reduction of upper roller is realized. The forming
process of four-roller bending is simulated by ABAQUS soft-
ware, and a symmetrical four-roller bending machine is de-
signed. The feasibility of the new process is verified. The
research work provides a new idea for the pipe production.
2 Process principle
The principle of symmetrical four-roller bending process is
shown in Fig. 4. A distribution mode of bilateral symmetry
is adopted. The two rollers are on the top, and the other two
rollers at the bottom. The process uses the four-point bending
principle. The bending moment of the plate loaded is approx-
imately equal between the two upper rollers when the plate is
loaded by the four-point free bending, and the curvature radius
is the same. With this principle, the two upper rollers

Fig. 6 Geometric model after

bending y

Rp
ρ m+

α β
t/2
+R

W
d

h
a

Rd x
a

L
4052 Int J Adv Manuf Technol (2019) 104:4049 4061

3 Theoretical analysis

3.1 Basic assumptions [26]

1. Pure bending assumption: the roll bending process is con-

sidered to be a pure bending process, which means to
Fig. 7 Numerical simulation model ignore the influence of normal stress that the upper roller
load F causes and to consider the bending strains only.
2. Neutral layer coinciding assumption: the strain neutral
Table 1 Dimensions of plate layer, stress neutral layer, and geometric neutral layer al-
Thickness t/mm Length l/mm Width b/mm ways coincide during the deforming process.
3. Bilinear hardening material model assumption: Effects of
5 1730 500 initial strain and change of material properties are
neglected. The relationship between strain and stress is

Table 2 Mechanical properties of pipe 

Eε ðε ≤ σs =E Þ
σ¼ ð1Þ
Material Yield stress Young’s Plastic tangent Dε þ σ0 ðε > σs =E Þ
σs/MPa modulus modulus
E/MPa D/MPa

Q420 418 210000 6250 σ0 ¼ ð1−D=EÞσs ð2Þ

Where, E is Young’s modulus, σs is the yield strength, and

synchronously press the plate to the specified position, and the
two lower rolls rotate automatically, and the plate is rolled and
formed under the action of friction. Compared with three-
point bending, four-point bending can greatly reduce the elas-
tic region under the condition of the same deformation degree.
This process has the advantages of less production procedure,
small remaining straight edge, simple equipment structure,
and easy to realize automatic and intelligent control.
The symmetrical four-roller bending process is shown in
Fig. 5. The main procedure composes of feeding, pre-bending,
reverse roll bending, final bending, positive roll bending, un-
load, and springback. In the reverse roll bending stage, the
direction of motion of the plate is opposite to the direction
of feeding; in the positive roll bending stage, the direction of
motion of the plate is the same as the direction of feeding. In
the pre-bending and final bending stage, the plate is applied to
the bending moment by the pressure of the upper roller. The
reverse roll bending can effectively reduce the remaining
straight edges of the round pipe fittings. By adjusting the
distance between the upper rollers or lower rollers and the
reduction of the upper roller, the round pipes with different
diameters can be rolled.
D is the plastic tangent modulus.
4. Plane section assumption: Any plane section remains
plane after deforming and no aberrance occurs.
5. Uniaxial stress state assumption: any particle in the plate
is uniaxially stretched or compressed when a deformation
occurs.
3.2 Curvature radius relationship before and
after springback
The effective strain is expressed as
w
ε¼ ð3Þ
ρ
Where, ρ is the radius of the neutral layer before
springback, and w is the distance from the neutral layer.
By assumptions (2) to (5) and Eqs. (1) to (3), the inner
moment M can be quantificationally given with integrating
the bending stress over the cross section by

Table 3 Main process parameters

Upper roller Lower roller Upper roller Lower roller Roller length,
diameter, mm diameter, mm spacing, mm spacing, mm mm

120 200 130 300 800

Int J Adv Manuf Technol (2019) 104:4049 4061 4053

Fig. 8 The deformation process of roll bending. Feeding (a), pre-bending (b), reverse roll bending (c), final bending (d), positive roll bending (e), unload
and springback (f)

DI σ0 t 2 σ0 σ2s ρ2 3.3 The relationship between the reduction

M ¼ ∫σwdA ¼ þ − ð4Þ and the curvature radius
ρ 4 3E2

Where, M is the inner moment, and I is the moment of Figure 6 shows the geometric model after bending. It is as-
inertia. sumed that the curvature radius of each section of the plate
By assumptions (1) and (2), the springback equation of between the tangent points of two upper rollers and plate is the
plane pure bending [27] is same in the bending process. The geometric relationship is as
follows:
1 1 M  t 2  t 2
¼ − ð5Þ Rd þ ρ m þ ¼ L2 þ Rd þ ρm þ −a ð6Þ
ρp ρ EI 2 2
a ¼ h þ Δa ð7Þ
Where, ρp is the radius of the neutral layer after springback  t
Δa ¼ ρm −Rp − ð1−cosβÞ ð8Þ
(target curvature radius). 2

Fig. 9 The stress and deformation

of plate between the rollers during
each forming stage. Pre-bending
(a), reverse roll bending (b), final
(a) Pre-bending (b) Reverse roll bending
bending (c), positive roll bending
(d), bending completion (e), and
unload and springback (f)

(c) Final bending (d) Positive roll bending

(e) Bending completion (f) Unload and springback

4054 Int J Adv Manuf Technol (2019) 104:4049 4061

Fig. 10 Equivalent stress (a) and

equivalent strain (b) of formed
round pipe after springback σ MPa ε
3.380E+2 2.731E-2
2.535E+2 2.048E-2
1.690E+2 1.365E-2
8.455E+2 6.826E-3
0 0

Max3.380E+2 Max2.731E-2

(a) Equivalent stress (b) Equivalent strain

L 4 Numerical simulation
sinα ¼ t ð9Þ
ρm þ þ Rd
2
W
sinβ ¼ t ð10Þ
ρm − −Rp
2 four-roller bending process is established by using ABAQUS
Where, ρ m is the radius of the neutral layer before
springback, α is the rotation angle of the tangent line between
the plate and lower roller, β is the rotation angle of the tangent
line between the plate and upper roller, Rp is the radius of the
upper roller, Rd is the radius of the lower roller, t is the thick-
ness of plate, h is the reduction of the upper roller, W is a half
of the spacing of upper rollers, and L is a half of the spacing of
lower rollers.
The relationship between the reduction h and the curvature
radius ρm can be obtained by Eqs. (6) to (10).
h ¼ Rp þ Rd þ t
 t  t
þ ρm −Rp − cosβ− ρm þ Rd þ cosα ð11Þ
2 2
By Eqs. (4), (5), and (11), the relationship between the
reduction h and the target curvature radius ρp can be obtained,
so that the prediction of the reduction h can be realized.
4.1 Finite element model
A two-dimensional finite element model of the symmetrical
software package, as shown in Fig. 7. The model is set up with
two upper rollers and two lower rollers, which are assumed as
analytical rigid body. The plate is discretized as a total of 5536
4-node bilinear plane strain quadrilateral and incompatible
mode elements (CPE4I). The contact between the tool and
the plate is set as a pure master-slave and kinematic contact
condition. The frictional coefficient is 0.18. The forming pro-
cess is simulated by using dynamic/implicit analysis module.
The plate with Q420 material is selected for numerical
simulation. The dimensions and mechanical properties of
plate are shown in Tables 1 and 2, respectively. The main
process parameters of roll bending are shown in Table 3.
4.2 Results and discussions
Figure 8 shows the deformation process of roll bending. The
ovality of the simulation pipe is 0.43%, and the remaining
straight side is only about 1.5 times the thickness of the plate.
500

500
Discharge side
Equivalent stress /MPa

400 Feed side

Equivalent stress /MPa

400
Inner surface Outer surface 300
300
Before springback 200 Inner layer before springback
200 After springback Outer layer before springback
Inner layer after springback
Outer layer after springback
100 100
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
1 2 3 4 5 6
Element node alone the length of plate
Element node alone the thickness of plate Fig. 12 Distribution of equivalent stress along the length of plate in the
Fig. 11 Distribution of equivalent stress along the thickness of plate rolling zone
Int J Adv Manuf Technol (2019) 104:4049 4061 4055

Curvature radius after springback /mm

Tangential stress /MPa 600 300
Before springback
400 Theoretical calculation
After springback
Numerical simulation
200
250
0

-200
Inner surface 200
Outer surface
-400

-600
150
1 2 3 4 5 140 160 180 200 220
Element node alone the thickness of plate
Curvature radius before springback /mm
Fig. 13 Distribution of tangential stress along the thickness of plate
Fig. 15 Comparison between theoretical calculation and numerical
simulation

Figure 9 shows the stress and deformation of plate between

the rollers during each forming stage. It is seen from Fig. 9 that
there are obvious differences between press bending and roll
bending process. During the press bending process, the stress
distribution of plate is symmetrical, and the equivalent stress is
larger near the contact zone between the upper rollers and the
plate, and the stress distribution is uniform in the remaining
zone. During the roll bending process, the stress distribution
of plate is asymmetric, and the equivalent stress decreases
gradually from the feed side to the discharge side. After un-
load and sringback, in the most zone of plate, the stress is
uniform.
Figure 10 shows the equivalent stress and equivalent strain
of formed round pipe after springback. It can be seen from Fig.
10 that the maximum equivalent stress is 338 MPa, and the
maximum equivalent strain is 0.02731. Both appear near the
pressure point of the upper rollers. The equivalent stress and
equivalent strain are uniform in the rest zone of pipe.
800
No.1 layer No.2 layer
600 No.4 layer No.5 layer
Tangential stress /MPa
Figure 11 shows the distribution of equivalent stress
along the thickness of plate. The nodes from 1 to 6 are in
turn the inner surface of plate to the outer surface of plate.
It can be seen from Fig. 11 that the distribution of equiva-
lent stress is symmetrical along the thickness of plate, and
the equivalent stress value along the plate thickness is not
very different. The equivalent stress after springback de-
creases obviously, and the stress value fluctuates greatly,
and the “W” shape is distributed along the thickness of the
plate. The residual stress in the neutral layer is about 350
MPa, and the residual stress in the outer layer is about 250
MPa. Figure 12 shows the distribution of equivalent stress
along the length of plate in the rolling zone. According to
Fig. 12, the equivalent stress of the inner and outer surface
of plate is basically equal, the peak value of the equivalent
stress decreases from the feed side to the discharge side,
and the deformation is asymmetric before springback. The
equivalent stress of the inner and outer layers of plate after
springback is also basically equal, whose value is about
250 MPa.
No.3 layer The distribution of tangential stress along the thickness
of plate is shown in Fig. 13. The nodes from 1 to 5 are in

400 turn the inner surface of plate to the outer surface of plate.
It can be seen that the fibers on the outside of the neutral
200 layer are tensile; the fibers inside the neutral layer are
Feed side Discharge side
0 compressed. After springback, the tangential stress from
the inner surface to the outer surface is distributed in the
-200 inverted “N” shape of “tension – compression – neutral
-400 layer – tension – compression,” whose value is less than
200 MPa. Figure 14 shows the distribution of tangential
-600 stress along the length of plate in the rolling zone. The
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 layers from 1 to 5 are in turn the inner surface of plate to
Element node alone the length of plate the outer surface of plate. According to Fig. 14, the abso-
Fig. 14 Distribution of tangential stress along the length of plate in the lute value of tangential stress of each layer from the feed
rolling zone side to the discharge side first increases and then
4056
11 12 13 14 15 16
10 9 8 7 6
Fig. 16 Two-dimensional drawing of symmetrical four-roller bending
machine. 1. Horizontal leading screw; 2. Bearing seat of lower roller; 3.
Bearing seat of upper roller; 4. Base; 5. Hand wheel; 6. Vertical plate; 7.
decreases along the length of plate. The tangential stress
of each layer is symmetric about the neutral layer. The
deformation of the inner and outer surface is the largest,
and the tangential stress of the neutral layer is always
zero, which indicates that the stress neutral layer coin-
cides with the geometric neutral layer.
Figure 15 shows the comparison of curvature radius
after springback between theoretical calculation and nu-
merical simulation. The two curves are very consistent.
The maximum error between the theoretical value and
the simulated value is less than 3%, which is due to the
simplification of the theoretical model. The smaller the
radius is, the smaller the error. The correctness of the
theoretical derivation is verified.
5 Experiments
5.1 Experimental device
A symmetrical four-roller bending prototype is designed in
this paper as shown in Figs. 16 and 17. The two lower rollers
are driven manually by a hand wheel. The span of upper
rollers is fixed, and the span of lower rollers can be adjusted.
The main parameters of the roll bending machine are shown in
Table 4.
5.2 Experimental materials
Cold rolled steel ST12 of two kinds of thickness of 3 mm
and 1.8 mm is used to roll round pipes with different
radii, namely 140 mm, 130 mm, and 120 mm. The dimen-
sions of plate are shown in Table 5, and the mechanical
properties are shown in Table 6.
Int J Adv Manuf Technol (2019) 104:4049 4061
5 4 3 2 1
Gear; 8. Lower roller; 9. Upper roller; 10. Frame; 11. Bearing plate; 12.
Vertical leading screw; 13. Input gear; 14. Holder; 15. Transmission shaft;
16. Screw nut
5.3 Results and discussions
According to the above mechanical properties, process
parameters, and theoretical analysis results, the theoretical
reduction is calculated, as shown in Table 7. In order to
ensure that the experimental curvature radius reaches the
target value, the experimental reduction will be adjusted
on the basis of theoretical reduction, as shown in Table 7.
The four-roller bending process is shown in Fig. 18. The
rolling parts are shown in Fig. 19.
The rolling parts are measured by using 3000iTM series
portable coordinate measuring machine (CMM), which has a
measurement accuracy of 0.01 mm. The results of the mea-
surement are shown in Table 7. The maximum ovality of the
rolling part is 4.44%; the minimum ovality is only 1.74%. The
error of most curvature radius is less than 0.5%. The straight
edge of the forming parts is very small and is hard to be
visible. It shows that it is feasible to produce the rolling parts
with this method.
Fig. 17 The symmetrical four-roller bending machine
Int J Adv Manuf Technol (2019) 104:4049 4061 4057

Table 4 The main parameters of

the roll bending machine Upper roller Lower roller Upper roller Lower roller Roller length,
diameter, mm diameter, mm spacing, mm spacing, mm mm

60 100 70 150~220 220

Table 5 Dimensions of plate

No. Thickness, t/mm Width, b/mm Length, l/mm Rolling radius, R/mm

1 3 100 880 140

2 3 100 817 130
3 3 100 754 120
4 1.8 100 880 140
5 1.8 100 817 130
6 1.8 100 754 120

Table 6 Mechanical properties

Material Thickness, Yield stress, Young’s Plastic tangent Tensile Poisson
t/mm σs/MPa modulus, E/ modulus, D/MPa strength, σb/ ratio, v
GPa MPa

ST12 1.8 195.28 202.16 1827.7 304.95 0.3

3 193.89 197.77 1607.1 292.37 0.3

6 Process parameters reduction are approximately linear. When the reduction is

In order to study the influence of various process parameters
on the forming results, the effect of process parameters on
forming curvature is studied by using numerical simulation
and single variable method.
6.1 Upper roller reduction
The relationship between the curvature after springback and
the upper roller reduction is shown in Fig. 20. With the in-
crease of reduction, the curvature after springback increases
gradually. When the reduction is small, the curvature and the
large, the curvature increases with the reduction exponentially.
6.2 Upper roller radius
The effect of upper roller radius on curvature after springback
is shown in Fig. 21. The upper roller radius has little effect on
the curvature after springback, and the curvature after
springback is approximately linear with the reduction. The
larger the upper roller radius is, the larger the curvature after
springback is. With the increase of the reduction, the effect of
the upper roller radius is more and more obvious.

Table 7 Experimental parameters and results

No. Thickness, Target curvature radius, Lower roller spacing, Reduction, h/mm Experimental curvature Radius Ovality,
t/mm R0/mm L/mm radius, R/mm error, % %
Theoretical Experimental

1 1.8 140 162 13.06 13.3 140.4 0.29 4.44

2 1.8 130 164 13.97 14.4 130.1 0.07 2.15
3 1.8 120 168 15.55 15.8 120.1 0.08 3.33
4 3 140 156 11.17 11.5 139.8 0.14 1.74
5 3 130 162 13.01 13.6 131.7 1.3 2.28
6 3 120 168 15.10 15.3 119.9 0.08 2.42
4058 Int J Adv Manuf Technol (2019) 104:4049 4061

Fig. 18 The four-roller bending

process. Feeding (a), bending(b),
roll bending (c), and bending
completion (d)

(a) Feeding (b) Bending

(c) Roll bending (d) Bending completion

6.3 Lower roller radius
The effect of lower roller radius on curvature after
springback is shown in Fig. 22. The lower roller radius
has also little effect on the curvature after springback.
The larger the lower roller radius is, the larger the curva-
ture after springback is. With the increase of the reduction,
the effect of the lower roller radius is more and more
obvious.
6.4 Upper roller spacing
The effect of upper roller spacing on curvature after
springback is shown in Fig. 23. The upper roller spacing has

(a) R=140mm, t=1.8mm (b) R=130mm, t=1.8mm (c) R=120mm, t=1.8mm

(e) R=140mm, t=3mm (f) R=130mm, t=3mm (g) R=120mm, t=3mm

Fig. 19 Rolling parts. R = 140 mm, t = 1.8 mm (a); R = 130 mm, t = 1.8 mm (b); R = 120 mm, t = 1.8 mm (c); R = 140 mm, t = 3 mm (d); R = 130 mm, t =
3 mm (e); R = 120 mm, t = 3 mm (f)
Int J Adv Manuf Technol (2019) 104:4049 4061 4059

-1

-1
Curvature after springback /10 ×mm

Curvature after springback /10 ×mm

4.0 3.0
3.5 W=130mm
-3

-3
2.5 W=150mm
3.0
W=170mm
2.5 2.0
2.0 1.5
1.5
1.0
1.0

0.5 0.5
0.0
12 16 20 24 0.0
Reduction /mm 8 10 12 14 16 18 20
Fig. 20 The change of curvature after springback with upper roller Reduction /mm
reduction Fig. 23 The effect of upper roller spacing on curvature after springback

a great effect on the curvature after springback. As the upper

-1

roller spacing increases, the greater the curvature after

Curvature after springback /10 ×mm

2.5 springback is and the smaller the required reduction is. And
Rp=40mm as the reduction increases, the effect of the upper roller spacing
-3

2.0 Rp=50mm on the curvature after springback is more obvious.

Rp=60mm
1.5
6.5 Lower roller spacing
1.0 The effect of lower roller spacing on curvature after
springback is shown in Fig. 24. The lower roller spacing has
0.5 a great effect on the curvature after springback. As the lower
roller spacing increases, the smaller the curvature after
0.0 springback is and the smaller the required reduction is. As
10 12 14 16 18 20 the reduction increases, the effect of the lower roller spacing
Reduction /mm on the curvature after springback is more obvious.
Fig. 21 The effect of upper roller radius on curvature after springback
-1

-1
Curvature after springback /10 ×mm

Curvature after springback /10 ×mm

2.5 3.0
Rp=90mm L=280mm
-3

-3

2.0 2.5 L=300mm

Rp=100mm
L=320mm
Rp=110mm 2.0
1.5
1.5
1.0
1.0
0.5 0.5

0.0 0.0
10 12 14 16 18 20 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 22 24
Reduction /mm Reduction /mm
Fig. 22 The effect of lower roller radius on curvature after springback Fig. 24 The effect of lower roller spacing on curvature after springback
4060
-1
Curvature after springback /10 ×mm
3.0
t=2.5mm
-3
2.5
t=5mm
2.0 t=7.5mm
1.5
1.0
0.5
0.0
8 10 12 14 16 18
Reduction /mm
Fig. 25 The effect of plate thickness on curvature after springback
6.6 Plate thickness
The effect of plate thickness on curvature after springback is
shown in Fig. 25. The thicker the plate is, the smaller the
curvature after springback is and the smaller the required re-
duction is.
7 Conclusions
1. A new symmetrical four-roller bending process is pro-
posed, and its optimum forming process is determined.
The main procedure composes of feeding, pre-bending,
reverse roll bending, final bending, positive roll bending,
unload, and springback.
2. The relationship between the reduction of upper roller and
the curvature radius before and after springback is
established, and the reduction of upper roller can be
predicted.
3. The symmetrical four-roller bending process is simulated,
and the rolling part is obtained with an ovality of 0.43%
and only 1.5 times the thickness of the remaining straight
edge. The symmetrical four-roller bending machine is de-
signed, and the ovality of rolling part from experiment is
less than 5%, and the minimum is only 1.74%. The error
of most curvature radius is less than 0.5%. Numerical
simulation and physical experiments prove the feasibility
of the method.
4. The effect of the upper roller spacing, lower roller spac-
ing, and plate thickness on the curvature after springback
is larger, while the effect of the upper roller radius and
lower roller radius is less.
5. The intelligent control of the four-roller bending process
will be studied in the next research, including the online
monitoring of curvature, the online recognition of
Int J Adv Manuf Technol (2019) 104:4049 4061
springback law, the online prediction of the reduction,
and the online control strategy.
Funding information This project was funded and supported by the
Project funded by China Postdoctoral Science Foundation
(2018M641672), Science and Technology Project of Qinhuangdao
(201805A007), National Natural Science Foundation of China
(51575473), and Doctoral Foundation of Yanshan University (BL18024).
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