Cost-efficient fabrication of load-adapted profiles by draw bending

Sheet metal profiles are used in production of cars and commercial vehicles, aircrafts and ships as well as in plant construction and several other manufacturing processes. The draw bending technology offers both a very flexible method to produce these types of profiles and an equipment to reduce machine costs by the use of simple and adaptive tools. Among other established methods, e.g. roll forming of sections and deep-drawing, more flexible methods gain importance because of the extensioning in product line-ups and concentrating requirements of prototypes. Ambitions to reduce pollutant emission by reducing vehicle weight in automotive production require the consistent use of lightweight construction. Draw bending technologies allow the fabrication of load-adapted parts for applications in concept lightweight production. It enables the fabrication of predominantly bearing-like parts with adjustable cross sections along the longitudinal axis. The fabrication of u-shaped profiles with various dimensions and adjusted cross sections as well as the fabrication of hat-shaped profiles with various widths of flange and adjusted longitudinal warping is being investigated in several research projects at the Institute of Metal Forming and Metal-Forming Machines (IFUM) of the Leibniz Universitat Hannover in cooperation with the Institute of Solid Mechanics (IFKM) of the Technische Universitat Dresden.