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Precision guided flexible forming: closed-loop control of geometry and properties for high value metal component manufacture

精密引导柔性成型：高价值金属部件制造的几何形状和性能的闭环控制

基本信息

批准号：
EP/K018108/1
负责人：
Julian Allwood
金额：
$ 217.53万
依托单位：
University of Cambridge
依托单位国家：
英国
项目类别：
Research Grant
财政年份：
2013
资助国家：
英国
起止时间：
2013 至无数据
项目状态：
已结题

来源：
https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=EP%2FK018108%2F1
关键词：
Precision guided flexible forming closed

项目摘要

Manufacturing involves only three types of processes - adding, changing or removing material. 'Metal Bashing' - changing the shape of metal components without removal or additions - is easily over-looked or even derided as the 'ugly duckling' of manufacturing technology, yet continues to be central to UK manufacturing, and always will be: jet engines, medical scanners, cars, high-rise offices and contemporary industrial equipment all depend on metal forming, both to define component geometries and to create the properties such as strength and toughness which determine product performance. Despite great excitement over additive processes such as 3D printing, metal forming will never be replaced, because the high-performance properties of steel, wrought aluminium and other key metals can only be developed as a result of careful control of deformation and temperature over time. Globally we use 25 times more steel than any other metal - in the UK our consumption drives production of 500kg of steel per person per year - and every steel product has been shaped by several metal forming processes. Inevitably, metal forming processes are therefore central to the production of a third of all manufactured exports from the UK which are in total worth over £75bn. However, the tools required for forming metal components are custom-made for each application at great cost, so metal forming is often expensive unless used in mass production, yet the drivers for development of future high-value UK manufacturing require increased flexibility and smaller batch sizes without sacrificing either the accuracy or properties of metal parts.In the past twenty years, several research labs around the world have responded to this challenge and explored the design and development of novel flexible metal forming equipment. However these processes have largely failed to move from the lab into industrial use, due to a lack of precision and a failure to guarantee product microstructure and properties. Recent developments in sensors, actuators, control theory and mathematical modelling suggest that both problems could potentially be overcome by use of closed-loop control, and in work leading to this proposal, we have demonstrated the first online use of a stereo-vision camera in a flexible sheet metal forming process to provide the feedback needed to control the final shape of the sheet precisely. This has shown us that closed-loop control of forming is possible and valuable, but involves a trade-off between product quality, process flexibility and production speed.This proposal therefore brings together four disciplines, previously un-connected in the area of flexible forming, to explore this trade-off and develop the key knowledge underpinning future development of commercially valuable flexible metal forming equipment: mechanical design of novel equipment; control-engineering in both time and space; materials science of metal forming; fast mathematical process modelling. At the heart of our proposal is the ambition to link design, metallurgy and modelling to control engineering, in order to identify the opportunity for developing and applying flexible forming, and to demonstrate it in practice in four well focused case-studies. The proposal comes with £1.2m gearing, including support for five PhD students to work within the project, and substantial commitments of time and trials from Siemens Metals Technologies, Firth Rixson and Jaguar Land Rover. The outcomes of the work will be communicated through publications, demonstrations, workshops for both industry and academic developers, and through an edited book.

制造业只涉及三种类型的过程-添加，更改或删除材料。“金属冲压”--在不去除或添加金属部件的情况下改变金属部件的形状--很容易被忽视，甚至被嘲笑为制造技术的“丑小鸭”，但它仍然是英国制造业的核心，而且将永远是：喷气发动机、医疗扫描仪、汽车、高层办公室和现代工业设备都依赖于金属成形，既限定部件的几何形状，又产生决定产品性能的性质，例如强度和韧性。尽管3D打印等增材工艺令人兴奋，但金属成形永远不会被取代，因为钢、锻铝和其他关键金属的高性能只能通过仔细控制变形和温度来实现。在全球范围内，我们使用的钢铁是其他任何金属的25倍-在英国，我们的消费推动了每人每年500公斤钢铁的生产-每种钢铁产品都是通过几种金属成型工艺成型的。因此，金属成形工艺不可避免地成为英国三分之一制造业出口产品的核心，总价值超过750亿英镑。然而，金属部件成型所需的工具是为每种应用定制的，成本很高，因此除非用于大规模生产，否则金属成型通常很昂贵，但未来高价值英国制造业发展的驱动力需要增加灵活性和更小的批量，而不牺牲金属部件的精度或性能。在过去的二十年中，世界各地的一些研究实验室已经响应这一挑战，并探索了新型柔性金属成形设备的设计和开发。然而，由于缺乏精度和无法保证产品的微观结构和性能，这些工艺在很大程度上未能从实验室转移到工业应用中。传感器，执行器，控制理论和数学建模的最新发展表明，这两个问题都可以通过使用闭环控制来克服，并在工作中导致这一建议，我们已经证明了第一次在线使用的立体视觉摄像机在一个灵活的金属板成形过程中提供所需的反馈，以精确地控制板的最终形状。这向我们展示了成形的闭环控制是可能的和有价值的，但涉及产品质量、工艺灵活性和生产速度之间的权衡。因此，本提案汇集了柔性成形领域以前没有联系的四个学科，以探索这种权衡，并发展支撑未来具有商业价值的柔性金属成形设备开发的关键知识：新设备的机械设计;时间和空间的控制工程;金属成形的材料科学;快速数学过程建模。我们提案的核心是将设计、冶金和建模与控制工程联系起来，以确定开发和应用柔性成形的机会，并在四个重点突出的案例研究中进行实践证明。该提案涉及120万英镑的资金，包括支持五名博士生在该项目中工作，以及西门子金属技术公司，Firth Rixson和捷豹路虎的大量时间和试验承诺。工作成果将通过出版物，演示，行业和学术开发人员的研讨会以及编辑的书籍进行交流。