2nd POST GRADUATE STUDENT’S CONFERNECE MECHANICAL ENGINEERING

Dynamic Analysis of Three-roll pyramidal configuration Roll

Bending Process and Experimental Verification
A. Mr. Pramod R. Walunj, B. Prof. Dr. A. D. Desai, and C. Prof. A. B. Verma

Abstract— Three Roll bending is an efficient metal forming capacity is limited such as size and shape of rollers and horse
technique, where plates are bent to a desired curvature using power of three roll bending machine motor. In this process of
forming rolls. Three rolling sheet forming process is one of the continuous roller bending, maximum load is required during
most widely used techniques for manufacturing axsymmetric
the pre-bending stage as top roller is at the offset distance
hollow shapes, basic component of cylindrical vessels and
structures used for different engineering applications. Three-roll
from its middle position. So, top roller offset during the pre-
pyramidal Roll Bending Process is beginning to be taken into bending machine decides the maximum width and minimum
serious consideration by industries for producing big, thick parts shell diameter combination that can be rolled for the particular
such as the conically shaped crown of a Francis turbine runner shell thickness, material property within machine capacity.
and of a wind turbine tower. It is important to bend the sheet Roller bending process can be used to deform a sheet to
smoothly and safely, without cracks and working for longer life. hollow shapes of constant (i.e. cylindrical, conical) or varying
While bending the sheet metal, stress and strain is developed in cross sections like cone. Cylindrical and conical shells are
the sheet. It is highly necessary that the stress and strain within components used for the different engineering applications
the limits of the material properties such as mild steel and the
like cylindrical tanks, boiler shell, heat exchanger, pressure
factor of safety desired by the engineering applications. Also,
there must be a definite relation between the roller positions and vessels, tunnels, etc. The process is performed using many
the radius of curvature of the rolling sheet that will be obtained. materials such like carbon and alloy steels, aluminium alloys.
Three-roll pyramidal Roll Bending process primarily deals with Rolling bending machines with three rolls are indispensible to
calculating the relation of the top roller positions and the radius the production of cylinders with different radiuses of
of curvature that will be obtained for different thickness of the curvatures. The rolling process is usually performed by a three
sheet metal. Three dimensional dynamic Finite Element (FE) rolls often called as pyramidal shape, because of the peculiar
model of a pyramidal three roller bending process is developed arrangement of the three rolls. The entire process of the roll
using the ANSYS software. The simulation results are compared bending may be divided into three steps followings are,
with experiments performed with three roll bending machine.
The top roll positions of the bending machine that affect the
1. Positioning of sheet or shell.
accuracy of the final shape, bending forces and the residual strain 2. Lowering of the lateral roller.
left in the formed sheet will be investigated. Applying the three 3. Feeding of the plate or shell.
dimensional dynamic Finite Element model in an industrial
context may predict the forming forces and accuracy of the final
shape’s radius and this will decrease the setup time before
manufacturing of the forming process.

Keywords: ANSYS, Bending, Finite, Element, Roller.

This work is supported by Shree Ramchandra College of engineering

Lonikand, Pune, and also helped by Mechanical outsourcing Pvt. Ltd.
Fig.1. Three roll bending machine.
Hadapsar, Pune.
A. Mr. P. R. Walunj, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Shree
Ramchandra College of engineering Lonikand, Pune. (E-mail: In the first step, a flat blank sheet is fed into the machine by
[email protected]). two rotating side rolls until the sheet is properly positioned. In
B. Prof. Dr. A. D. Desai, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Shree the second step, centre roller is displaced downward causes
Ramchandra College of engineering Lonikand, Pune. (E-mail: bending of the sheet or plate. In the final step, two side roller
[email protected]).
B. Prof. A. B. Verma, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Shree rotate again, so that the sheet is bent continuously in
Ramchandra College of engineering Lonikand, Pune. (E-mail: cylindrical manner. The rolling process is always begun with
[email protected]). the crucial operation of pre bending process both the ends of
the sheet or plate. This operation eliminated flat spots when
I. INTRODUCTION rolling a fall cylindrical size and ensured better closure of the
The three roller bending machines are widely used in heavy shell.
engineering applications for the manufacturing of skeleton of
the construction of tunnels, cylindrical tanks, boiler II. DESIGN CONSIDERATIONS
equipment’s, fuel tanks for launch vehicles in space The various machine elements used in the
applications, industrial buildings, pressure vessels, heat construction three roll bending machine are.
exchangers, tall towers, reactors, etc. Top roller load required A. Shaft
to bend the sheet is the function of various parameters viz. B. Bearings
plate thickness, plate width, shell diameter to be rolled, plate C. Gear
material property gap between the bottom rollers etc. Machine D. Lead screw

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 2nd POST GRADUATE STUDENT’S CONFERNECE MECHANICAL ENGINEERING

E. Lever Fig. 3. Distribution of the stress across the thickness of the plate.
F. Frame

A. Shaft design Yield stress of the material,

We have,
Yield strength of steel plate = 380 Mpa
Length of the rolls are assumed as, l = 1000 mm,
Thickness of the sheet is, t = 2 mm,
Distance between the bottom rollers is assumed as, b = 40
mm,
Therefore we get the load was,
Fig. 2. Design of shaft.
Nomenclature:
b = distance between rolls
d = diameter of rolls W = 38000 N
l = length of rolls Now we have the formula for stress as,
t = thickness of the plate
B = breadth of the stand
E = Young’s modulus of stand For steel of grade 40C8, we have the ultimate tensile strength
H = Height of stand given as,
L = Length of stand Sut = 580 MPa and
W = radial force on the roll Syt = 280 MPa.
i). Material properties of the shaft The allowable shear stress is given by ASME code as,

Max stress 400-500 N/mm2 0.18 × Sut

Depending up on ruling section or
Yield stress 310-440N/mm2
Depending up on ruling section The lower value of the two is selected as allowable shear
0.2% proof stress 280-420 N/mm2 stress.
Depending up on ruling section Therefore the allowable shear stress is,
Elongation 10-15% min
Now, the allowable shear stress is given by the formula,
C. Rolls
One of the important design parameters for the three
rolls is the folding pressure that comes into play during
bending. Consider three rolls disposed with its axes at the
corners of an isosceles triangle, as shown in Fig. 2. The
bending moment to which the plate is subjected to is given by,
Therefore,

Where W is the load exerted by the central (top) roll and b is Thus, we get the diameter of each roller as 21.52 mm. For
the distance between the lateral rolls. A rigorous study of the better rigidity and safety, we assume the diameter of the roller
plastic behavior of cold rolling is given in Ref. [1]. as 30 mm. Also, this is a standard diameter which is easily
Reasonable estimate one can proceed as follows. If the plates available in the market.
were to deform at the point of contact, the bending moment
can be equal to the plastic moments of resistance of the plate D. Bearing
[2] (Fig. 4). Therefore,

Fig.. 4. SKF ball bearing.

Specification:
Quantity:-7 SKF ball bearings & 2 small SKF bearing.
Big bearing

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 2nd POST GRADUATE STUDENT’S CONFERNECE MECHANICAL ENGINEERING

Outer Diameter (OD) = 70 mm Length of Tooth (h) = 20 mm

Inner Diameter (ID) = 31.7mm Thickness of Tooth (t) =2.5mm
Width of Gear Face (b) =10 mm.
Small bearing
Spur gears are used to transmit torque and angular
Outer Diameter (OD) =25mm
velocity in a wide variety of applications. There is also a wide
Inner Diameter (ID) = 15mm
variety of gear types. The simplest type of gear, the spur gear,
designed to operate on parallel shaft and having teeth parallel
We use the bearing here in its most general sense.
to shaft axis. Other gear types likes helical, bevel, and worm
Whenever two parts have relative motion, they constitute a
can accommodate nonparallel shafts. Early gears were most
bearing by definition, regardless of their shape. Usually,
likely made of wood and other easily worked materials, their
lubrication is needed in any bearing to reduce friction and
teeth merely being pegs inserted in a wheel. It was not until
remove heat. Bearings can roll or slide or do both
the industrial revolution that machines demanded and
simultaneously.
manufacturing techniques allowed the formation of gears as
A plain bearing is formed by any two materials rubbing
we now know them with specially shaped into a metal disk.
on one another, whether a sleeve around a shaft. In a plain
bearing, one of the moving parts usually will be steel or cast
F. Lead Screw
iron or other structural material in order to achieve the
The Selection of material for screw and Plane carbon
required hardness. Transmission shafts, links, and pins are in
steel Nut at Caste Iron. The lead screw is used for adjusting
this type. The parts that move against will usually be made of
the upward roller from both the sides for getting the various
a bearing material such as bronze, Babbitt, or a nonmetallic
type carve shape of metal sheet it is mounted on both the side
polymer. A thrust bearing supports axial load.
of the upper shaft through the frame .When the nut engages
the thread, theoretically all the thread in engagement should
E. Gear
share the load. In actual, inaccuracies in the thread spacing
cause virtually all the load can be taken by the first pair of
thread. Thus the conservative approach in calculate the thread
stress is to assume the worst case of one thread pair is taking
all the load equally or the other extreme case is to assume that
all the engaged threads gives the load equally.

Specification:
Quantity: 2
Material of screw = Plane Carbon Steel
Outer Diameter (OD) = 20 mm
Number of Tooth (N) = 42 Nos.
Length of screw = 180mm
Thickness of Tooth (t) = 3 mm

G. Lever

Fig. 5. Spur Gear

Specification:
Quantity: 3 spur gear
Small gear
Quantity: 2 spur gear Fig. 6. Lever
Outer Diameter (D) =28mm Specification:
Inner Diameter (d) = 18 mm Quantity: 1
Number of Tooth (N) = 25Nos Material = Plane Carbon Steel
Length of Tooth (h) = 20 mm Outer Diameter (OD) = 10 mm
Thickness of Tooth (t) =2.5mm Length of lever = 300 mm
Width of Gear Face (b) =10mm
Big gear Our machine is manually operated so the hand lever is
Quantity: 1 spur gear used for operating or revolving. It is directly connected by the
Outer Diameter (D) = 42mm shaft. The lever is most important in the hand operated sheet
Inner Diameter (d) = 32 mm bending machine. It is connected to the gear. When lever is
Number of Tooth (N) = 25Nos move from rotary than two shaft rotated in same direction.

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H. Frame
The frame is made up by cast iron angle. Dimension
of frame =area = (length x bright x height)

Fig. 10. Meshing for 3 roller bending process.

Top roller is modeled 0.1 mm away from the plate,

and frictional contact is used between top roller and plate
surface. Other two rollers are assumed to have bonded contact
with plate surface. Finer meshing size is used at top roller for
Fig. 7. Frame contact region and plate as it is our area of interest. Bottom
two rollers are fixed at inside circle of 10 mm diameter.
Specification: Displacement to the top roller will be used as boundary
Material = Mild Steel condition. Non- Linear mild steel properties from ANSYS
Length × width = 850×350 mm library are used for plate. It uses bilinear hardening plasticity
to define stress strain curve beyond yield limit.
III. FINITE ELEMENT ANALYSIS
Two steps are performed in analysis in first step
A. Results of conventional steel shaft displacement is used as input to push the plate using top roller
Three dimensional solid models for the three roller and then in the next step roller is moved back. So that spring
bending machine assembly is modeled using CATIA V5. back effect can be observed in the sheet. Strain data is
Figure below shows the image from the assembly. recorded for both the cases. Also spring back displacement
also observed at different thickness plates and different
displacement values. We will find maximum displacement for
the top roller before crack generation starts on the sheet due to
bending. As we have selected mild steel as our plate material,
ultimate tensile strength for mild steel 1018 will be our
acceptable limit for von-Mises stress. Table for material
properties of mild carbon steel 1018 is given below.

TABLE I
MATERIAL PROPERTIES FOR MILD STEEL
Fig. 8. CAD model for Propeller Shaft Assembly.
Property Value Unit
Bending of sheet is process that can be simulated using Modulus of Elasticity 205 E3 Mpa
plane stress method. As results will be similar through out the
Poisson's Ration 0.29
length. In order to save analysis time we have modeled 2 D
ANSYS plane stress analysis. Yield Strength 180 Mpa
Ultimate Tensile Strength 440 MPa

Fig. 9. Plane stress model for rolling process 1.5 mm sheet.

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Fig. 11. Boundary condition and Loading.

Fig. 15. Total Deformation plot after roller retrieved back.

Table II
FEA ANALYSIS FOR TOP ROLLER POSITION OF STRESS, STRAIN
AND TOTAL SPRING BACK IS GIVEN BELOW FOR SHEET
Fig. 12. Von Mises Stress plot at 1 mm roller displacement. THICKNESS OF 1.5 MM.
Displacement Equivalent Stress Spring Back
(mm) (MPa) Strain Effect (mm)
1.00 200.16 0.01900 0.25260
2.00 209.88 0.03967 0.19710
4.00 241.29 0.10268 0.19300
6.00 280.58 0.18120 0.17120
8.00 322.69 0.26520 0.14770
10.00 371.97 0.36344 0.12800
12.00 422.56 0.46438 0.11700
14.00 465.13 0.54958 0.11

IV. EXPERIMENTAL VERIFICATION

A. Three Roller bending set up

Generally plane rollers will be used to roll the plate
Fig. 13. Equivalent Total Strain plot. to the shape. Maximum possible deflection of the roller is
simulated using FAE. Same needs the validation as a proof of
Spring Back effect can measured in ANSYS as difference
correctness of the results as one cannot rely on only FEA to
between maximum deformations of the sheet at top roller
predict the accurate results. Experimental set up consists of 3
displaced and maximum deformation at the end of the cycle.
roller pyramidal bending machine with helical groove on the
Spring Back Effect = 0.90-0.6477 rollers, groove ensure that the path is provided for strain
Spring Back = 0.2533 mm gauges mounted on the plate to pass without being rolled and
results of the strain observation on plate while rolling are not
strangled. Set up requires thus rolling machine with groove on
the rollers, Strain gauges to be placed on the plate at the time
of testing to read the strain values during rolling process is
carried out.

Fig. 16. Schematic Block diagram for testing on three roller bending machine.
Fig. 14. Total Deformation plot for maximum displacement of roller. B. Experimental Result

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TABLE III Strain values observed from analysis and testing

OBSERVATIONS RESULTS OF TESTING
strain values are compared to find the error % or deviation of
Top Roller Displacement the strain from testing values. Maximum of 15 % deviation
Strain Observed
(mm) from the actual values is considered good correlation with
2 0.036 FEA.
4 0.098 TABLE IV
6 0.162
8 0.245 COMPARISION OF FEA RESULT AND EXPERIMENTAL
10 0.335 RESULT
12 0.426 Displacement
Strain % Error
14 0.533 (mm)
Analysis Testing
From the above table III, we have proved that the strain values 1.00 0.01900 0.017 10.53%
observed in experimental result with FEA result with marginal 2.00 0.03967 0.036 9.25%
acceptable error. 4.00 0.10268 0.096 6.51%
6.00 0.18120 0.162 10.60%
V. RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS
8.00 0.26520 0.245 7.62%
10.00 0.36344 0.335 7.83%
Maximum displacement of top roller allowed without
endangering crack formation in work piece is observed as 12 12.00 0.46438 0.426 8.26%
mm from FEA results. From FEA and practical results 14.00 0.54958 0.533 3.02%
comparison strain values are in conformance with each other .
with maximum variation of 10.6 % which validates the FEA
results. Maximum von Mises Stress found in work piece while
14 mm displacement of top roller is 465 MPa which is more
than the ultimate tensile strength of the mild steel. Variation of
maximum von Misses Stress in the plate with respect to
change in top roller position as shown in figure below from
table II.

Fig. 19. Comparison of FEA result V/s Experimental result.

VI. CONCLUSION
We have calculated the diameter of the roller required for
bending maximum of 2 mm thickness sheet is 30 mm. With
Fig. 17. Displacement of top roller position V/s Maximum von Mises
Stress.
given configuration of 30 mm roller diameter with 54 mm
roller distance we can bend 1.5 mm mild steel plate up to
Graph below from table II shows the relation roller position of 12 mm without any cracks on the sheet metal
between spring back effect of the plate and top roller position Strain values observed in FEA and testing are pretty much in
while rolling. Spring back effect reduces as top roller position conformance which validates the FEA model. Valuable
is advanced downward. prediction of maximum stress, spring back effect and strain
values is generated for different top rollers positions while
bending 1.5 mm thick mild steel plate using this three roller
bending machine.

A. Future Scope
 Different thickness varying below 2 mm can be
modeled and similar data can be generated for all
possible gauge thicknesses of sheet.
 Different material can be tested and validated in FEA
and testing and data for them can be generated.
 Data generated can be used to graphically predicting
the minimum radius of curvature each type of
Fig. 18. Displacement of top roller position V/s spring back effect. material and thickness of sheet can achieve on

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particular bending machine without generating cracks

on the work piece.
 MATLAB program can be used to predict
mathematical values of radius of curvature for
different sheet thickness and different roller
positions.

REFERENCES
[1] Chudasama, M. K. and Raval H. K. 2012, “Analytical model for
prediction of force during 3-roller multipass conical bending and its
experimental verification”. International Journal of Mechanical
Engineering and Robotics Research, Vol.1, No.3, p.91-105.
[2] Chudasama, M. K. and Raval H. K. 2013, “Development of Analytical
Model of Bending Force during 3-Roller Conical Bending Process and
Its Experimental Verification”. Vol:7, No.11.
[3] Fu, Z., Tian X., Chen W., Hu B. and Yao X. 2013, “Analytical modeling
and numerical simulation for three-roll bending forming of sheet metal”.
The International Journal of Advanced Manufacturing Technology,
Vol.69, No.5-8, p.1639-1647.
[4] Gajjar, H. V., Gandhi A. H., Jafri T. A. and Raval H. K. 2007.
“Bendability analysis for bending of C-Mn steel plates on heavy duty 3-
roller bending machine” World Academy of Science, Engineering and
Technology, Vol.1, No.8, p.86-91.
[5] Gandhi, A. H., Shaikh A. A. and Raval H. K. 2008. “Analytical and
empirical modeling of top roller position for three-roller cylindrical
bending of plates and its experimental verification”. P. 268–278.