The invention relates to a method for continuously roller-forming and hardening sheet steel in which a sheet steel strip is continuously roller-formed into a profile in a roller-profiling unit, characterized in that the roller-formed profile strand is preheated to a temperature below the austenite starting temperature (Ac.sub.1) and the roller-formed profile strand is then heated across subregions of its cross-section and/or subregions of its length to a temperature above AC.sub.3, with the roller-formed profile strand being acted on with tension at least during the heating of subregions to a temperature >AC.sub.3.

The present invention belongs to the technical field of high-efficiency, high-precision and high-performance laser bending of metal sheets, and relates to a line-shape spot laser bending method for metal sheets. The present invention uses a multimode laser scanning mirror or a single piezoelectric deformable mirror to convert laser Gaussian distributed point spots to uniformly distributed line-shape spot, and meanwhile, loads the spots in a bending line area and bends metal sheets so that the temperature field in the bending line of the metal sheet is distributed uniformly to achieve the purposes of reducing warpage deformation, enhancing bending angle consistency and increasing the bending efficiency.

A forming method for a vehicle body member may include a tube making process of forming a steel pipe by welding a steel plate coil; a non-circular tube making process of primary preforming the steel pipe formed in the tube making process so as to have a cross section of a predetermined shape; a bending process of bending and secondarily preforming the steel pipe preformed firstly in the non-circular tube making process; and a hot stamping process of heating the secondarily preformed steel pipe, inserting the heated steel pipe into a mold to form a desired shape, and then, quenching the heated steel pipe to form a vehicle body member, thereby easily forming a vehicle body member having high rigidity.

A forming method for a vehicle body member may include a tube making process of forming a steel pipe by welding a steel plate coil; a non-circular tube making process of primary preforming the steel pipe formed in the tube making process so as to have a cross section of a predetermined shape; a bending process of bending and secondarily preforming the steel pipe preformed firstly in the non-circular tube making process; and a hot stamping process of heating the secondarily preformed steel pipe, inserting the heated steel pipe into a mold to form a desired shape, and then, quenching the heated steel pipe to form a vehicle body member, thereby easily forming a vehicle body member having high rigidity.

The invention relates to a method, use or a profile for manufacturing metallic flat materials to a cost-effective load-bearing structure of a passenger car and the usage of it. As the main forming manufacturing method the bend forming according to DIN EN ISO 8580 is used.

A thermal-assisted method deforms a sheet metal assembly having constrained ends. A focus bending area located between the constrained ends is heated. The focus bending area is bent while the sheet metal assembly is within an elevated bending temperature range. A sheet metal assembly may be formed by this method, which includes an outer metal sheet and an inner metal sheet fixed together to form constrained ends. The sheet metal assembly has a bend formed therein between the first and second constrained ends, wherein each metal sheet is bent at the bend with a maximum gap between the inner and outer metal sheets at the bend. The maximum gap is no greater than five times the thickness of one of the inner and outer metal sheets, and the bend has a radius less than three times the thickness of one of the inner and outer sheets.

A method of manufacturing printed images on metal with tight bends provides for crack free edges at the tight bends, something previously unattainable in the marketplace. Specifically, prior to bending the metal, the at least coated metal (if not dye sublimated printed) is at an elevated temperature in a range of 90 to 250 degrees Fahrenheit, such as in a range of 190-200 degrees. The metal is then bent which has been found to permit self-leveling of the coating throughout the tight bend, as opposed to it being so narrow that cracking occurs.

A system for forming a metal strip into a die having a predetermined shape through a series of forming operations is described herein. The system includes a base configured to support the metal strip as the metal strip undergoes the series of forming operations; a feeding device configured to advance the metal strip between each forming operation of the series of forming operations and grip the metal strip during each forming operation; a bending device configured to bend a portion of the metal strip extending from the feeding device as one of the series of forming operations; a forming head configured to house a pair of forming tools and provide features to the portion of the metal strip extending from the feeding device as one of the series of forming operations using the one or more forming tools; a robotic arm configured to selectively provide the one or more forming tools to the forming head; and a computing unit in communication with the robotic arm and configured to transmit a control signal to cause the robotic arm to retrieve the pair of forming tools and provide the pair of forming tools to the forming head.

Provided, among other things, is a method of cutting and folding a planar substrate with a focused laser beam, directed from above the substrate, to form a shape with features in 3-dimensions, the method comprising: (a) executing from above laser cuts to the planar substrate so as to provide one or more a releasable segments; (b) executing from above one or more laser-executed upward folds to bend all or a portion of a releasable segment; and (c) executing from above one or more laser-executed downward folds to bend all or a portion of a releasable segment; wherein the cuts and folds are structured so that precursors to the 3D shape remain attached to the substrate while sufficient cuts and folds are made to form the 3D shape, and wherein the planar substrate is immobile during said steps (a) through (c), or is only moved in the plane of the substrate.

A computer controlled method for bending profiles for making insulating frames for double and triple glass pane glazings comprises at least the steps of: automatically feeding the profile to a profile machining section; immediately bringing the profile to a bending position, in which the profile is heated directly by hot air jets to a malleable condition at the bending position without moving the profile in its malleable condition.