Method and Device for Determining the Wear Properties of Coated Flat Products by Means of Bending

Abstract

A method for determining the wear properties of coated flat products such as galvannealed flat steel products is provided herein. In order to be able to achieve better comparability of the determined wear properties of different flat products at least one bending parameter for the bending of the particular flat product by a bending device is selected in accordance with defined criteria on the basis of information regarding the thickness and/or the strength of the particular flat products to be bent. The flat products are bent in the bending device in accordance with the selected bending parameters, wear thus being produced. The wear properties are analysed in a predetermined manner on the basis of the wear of the particular flat products.

Claims

1. A method for determining the wear properties of coated flat products comprising the steps of: selecting at least one bending parameter for bending the respective flat product with a bending device according to set criteria based on information concerning the thickness and/or the strength of the respective flat products to be bent, bending the flat products in the bending device according to the at least one selected bending parameter with the creation of wear and analyzing the wear properties based on the wear of the respective flat products in a predetermined manner.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the at least one bending parameter for the bending of the respective flat product is selected according to set criteria based on information concerning the tensile strength of the respective flat products.

3. The method according to claim 1, wherein the wear properties are analysed based on the wear of the respective flat products at least substantially in the same way.

4. The method according to claim 1, wherein the at least one bending parameter is a bending angle and/or a bending wedge radius for bending the flat product in the bending device.

5. The method according to claim 4, wherein a corresponding bending means is selected as a function of the selected bending wedge radius, prior to bending the flat products, and wherein the flat products are bent with the selected bending wedge.

6. The method according to claim 5, wherein a plunging depth of the bending means in a bending gap is selected in each case as a function of the bending angle prior to bending the flat products.

7. The method according to claim 6, wherein a distance travelled by the bending means during the bending process from contact with the unbent flat product until the final position in the bending gap can be taken as the plunging depth.

8. The method according to claim 1, wherein the bending device is transmitted information concerning the thickness and/or the strength of the respective flat product to be bent.

9. The method according to claim 1, wherein an adhesive means is affixed to the respective flat product to receive at least part of the wear prior to, during, or after the bending of the flat product, wherein the adhesive means together with part of the wear adhering to the respective adhesive means is removed from the respective flat product and wherein the part of the wear adhering to the respective adhesive means is analysed for determining the wear properties of the respective flat product.

10. A bending device for bending coated flat products for determining the wear properties of the flat products according to claim 1, the bending device comprising: a bending gap for partially receiving the bent flat product and at least one bending means for bending the flat product at least partially into the bending gap, and a control device for controlling at least one bending parameter during bending of the at least one flat product wherein the control device is provided for changing the at least one bending parameter according to predetermined criteria based on information concerning the thickness and/or the strength between at least two bending processes.

11. The bending device according to claim 10, wherein a plurality of bending means is provided and wherein a bending means exchange device is provided for changing the respective bending means used for bending between at least two bending processes according to the instructions of the control device.

12. The bending device according to claim 11, wherein a turret head supporting a plurality of bending means is provided and wherein the respective bending means used for bending can be changed between at least two bending processes by rotation of the turret head.

13. The bending device according to claim 10, wherein the bending means used for bending and/or the bending gap is associated with a moving device, to plunge the at least one bending means up to a maximum plunging depth specified by the control device into the bending gap, and wherein the maximum plunging depth of the bending means created by the moving device can be changed between at least two bending processes by the control device according to certain instructions.

14. The bending device according to claim 10, wherein the control device has at least one interface for receiving and one processing unit for processing the information concerning the thickness and/or the strength of the flat products to be bent.

15. The bending device according to claim 10, wherein the control device is provided to change the at least one bending parameter according to predetermined criteria, based on information concerning the tensile strength, between at least two bending processes.

16. The method according to claim 9, wherein the adhesive means comprises an adhesive strip.

17. The bending device according to claim 10, wherein the plurality of bending means comprises bending wedges.

Description

[0033] The drawing shows as follows:

[0034] FIG. 1 a top view of a coated flat product provided with an adhesive strip;

[0035] FIG. 2 a side view of a bending device according to the invention with the flat product from FIG. 1 in the as yet unbent state;

[0036] FIG. 3 a side view of the bending device from FIG. 2 with the flat product from FIG. 2 in the bent state;

[0037] FIG. 4 a side view of a flattening device with the flat product from FIG. 3;

[0038] FIG. 5 a top view of the flat product from FIG. 3 provided with the adhesive strip after flattening; and

[0039] FIG. 6 a schematic flow diagram of a method according to the invention.

[0040] FIG. 1 shows a top view of a coated flat product 1 in the form of a galvannealed coated steel strip, the wear properties of which are to be investigated. To this end, an adhesive means in the form of an adhesive strip 2, preferably in plastic, in particular a transparent plastic, is affixed to the flat product 1. The flat product 1 provided with the adhesive strip 2 is placed in a seat 3 of the bending device 4, shown in FIG. 2. There the flat product 1 is placed in a starting position on what is known as a roller die 5. Instead of a roller die 5 with two rollers 6, rotatable about two parallel axes 7, each aligned parallel to the plane of the unbent flat product 1, another die, referred to as a V-die, could be provided, having a V-shaped slot for making a bend in the flat product 1. A die could also be used having two supports arranged parallel to one another, and which are rounded where they are adjacent to the bending gap, or a die with fixed, that is to say non-rotatable, rollers. The roller die 5 shown, and to this extent preferred, comprises two rollers 6, each with a diameter of 50 mm. Basically, however, other roller diameters can also be used. The rollers 6 form a bending gap 8 between them with a minimum width at the narrowest point of the bending gap 8 of 6 mm parallel to the plane of the flat product 1 in the unbent initial state according to FIG. 2. The bending gap could basically also be variable. To this end, a spring mounting of at least one roller could be provided such that the bending gap becomes wider the higher the force is exerted in the roller, in particular the at least one corresponding spring. It can also be provided that the bending gap widens if the force exerted on at the at least one spring-mounted roller exceeds a certain amount.

[0041] Above the unbent flat product 1 a bending means exchange device 9 in the form of a turret head 10 with four bending wedges 11, 12, 13, 14 is provided, which is similarly rotatable about an axis 15 parallel to the plane of the unbent flat product 1, in order in this way to be able to bend the flat product 1 with the desired bending wedge 11, 12, 13, 14. To this end, the turret head 10 simply has to be rotated into a corresponding position. The position, into which the turret head 10 is rotated, is specified by a control device 16. The control device 16 is transmitted information via an interface (not shown) concerning the thickness and the strength, in particular the tensile strength, of the flat product 1 to be bent, which is processed by a processing unit (also not shown). Based on this information the control device 16 controls the turret head 10, so that this rotates in such a way that the flat product 1 is bent with the bending wedge 11 with the desired bending wedge radius. The criteria against which the bending wedge radius is selected, have been set in advance. The criteria are preferably stored in the memory unit. For a particular combination of thickness and strength of the flat product 1 it is preferably empirically determined in advance, which bending wedge radius and bending angle are to be used to cause a bending of the flat product 1, which is comparable with the bending of flat products 1 of other thicknesses and strengths in terms of the creation of wear.

[0042] The turret head 10 with the four bending wedges 11, 12, 13, 14 is secured to a moving device 17. The moving device 17 is designed so that the bending wedge 11 pointing in the direction of the flat product 1 can be moved into the bending gap 8. The extent to which the bending wedge 11 is moved into the bending gap 8, is controlled by the control device 16. Here, the control device 16, based on the information concerning the thickness and strength of the flat product 1 to be bent, determines how far the bending wedge 11 is moved into the bending gap 8. Here, the further the bending wedge 11 is moved into the bending gap 8, the smaller the bending angle , that is the angle between the faces 18, 19 of the flat product being bent together, becomes. Here, the bending angle for a given die is essentially directly correlated with what is referred to as the plunging depth of the bending wedge. The plunging depth is shown in FIG. 3. The plunging depth E1 corresponds here to a bending angle of approximately 100, while the plunging depth E2 corresponds to a bending angle of approximately 90. The plunging depth is given here by the distance between the surface of the unbent flat product 1 and the underside of the bending wedge 11, 12, 13, 14 in the position of maximum insertion of the bending wedge 11, 12, 13, 14 during the respective bending process.

[0043] After bending, the bent flat product 1 is removed from the bending device 4 and flattened in a flattening device 20 according to FIG. 4 between a stamp 21 with a flat underside 22 and a flat support 23. Here, the bending of the flat product 1 is reversed and the flat product 1 reverted to a flat form. In this way, the flat product 1 according to FIG. 5 is obtained. The flat product 1 was bent about a bending line 24 along the adhesive strip 2, leading to wear 25 there, present as a strip lengthways to the adhesive strip 2 and adhering to the adhesive strip 2. The wear 25 can thus be removed with the adhesive strip 2 from the flat product 1 and then analysed, to indicate the wear properties. The wear properties can thus be expressed as the degree of blackening, or what is known as the grey scale of the stripof wear 25. Alternatively, however, the width of the strip of wear 25 can be determined and used to express the wear properties. It is essentially the case that the more wear 25 created during bending, the wider and blacker the strip is. The way in which the adhesive strip 2 together with the wear 25 is assessed and the determination of the wear properties can be carried out as described in the state of the art regarding what is known as the adhesive strip bending test or also the V bending test.

[0044] FIG. 6 is a schematic representation of the sequence of a method of the abovementioned kind. Initially an adhesive strip is attached to a coated flat product, preferably in the form of a galvannealed coated steel sheet, according to the method described and to this extent preferred method. The flat product is preferably then placed in a seat of a bending device on a die. In addition, the thickness and the strength of the flat product are passed on to the control device of a bending device. Based on the information concerning the thickness and the strength of the flat product a bending wedge radius and a plunging depth are selected and set for the bending process. The flat product is then bent with the help of the bending wedge, which together with the flat product plunges by a predetermined distance into the bending gap. Then the flat product is removed from the bending device and is pressed flat again or bent back in a flattening device. Alternatively, though, the flattening device can be incorporated into the bending device. This is in particular possible if the turret head 10 in addition to the bending wedges also has a flattening stamp with a flattening surface, which to flatten the bent flat product can be rotated into position, in order to interact with the die for flattening the flat product. Then the adhesive strip together with the wear created during bending is preferably removed from the flat product and, based on the adhesive strip, the wear properties of the corresponding flat product are determined.

[0045] The method steps described above for a flat product are performed in succession for different flat products, which differ in terms of their thickness and/or strength. The correspondingly determined wear properties, despite these differences, are to a large extent comparable with one another.