Sheet Roller Machine
ME122 Project by Dixun, Jonathan, Cristian, Lawrence
Project Concept
The goal of our project is to design and build a prototype of a hot rolling machine that acts as a scaled down version of a real life machine. We will select materials and processes for the prototype that can be applied to building the full scale rolling machine. We will also create a testing plan in order to measure the effectiveness of the machine to ensure that a sheet roller would be successful if a full scale machine was constructed based off our design.
We began by selecting a model of a real life machine for us to study. Next, we will choose materials and processes to build essential parts of the prototype as well as a full scale machine. We will also begin our testing and evaluation plan. After our materials and processes have been chosen, we will construct our prototype and perform our testing process, before we complete the prototype and evaluate our experimental results.
Throughout the process, we will better understand how rolling machines work in bulk metal forming. We will also learn about how to build the prototype machine using DFM principles and a variety of manufacturing methods, while also learning about mechanical testing and evaluation. By the end of the project, we aim to have a fully functioning and scalable prototyping machine as well as experimental results from our testing procedure.
Manufacturing Process
Rolling is a bulk process where the thickness of metal is reduced by getting pulled and squeezed through rollers. The process is generally repetitive as after several passes through more closely spaced rollers, the desired thickness is achieved.
The driving force is friction and in order to ensure a good product, lubrication is needed and forces must be chosen correctly. Rolling can also occur at high temperatures (hot), which more easily allows deformation, or at room temperature (cold), which improves mechanical properties and surface finish. Overall, very large sheets can be repeatably manufactured. However, energy consumption is high and manufacturing flexibility is low.
Market Need
Sheet rolling is very important due to its ability to process metals into more useful, uniform forms. Sheets can be used directly, or they can used in other processes such as forming in order to create final projects. Rolling is a cost effective method for creating large sheets of metals. Thus, it satisfies a major market need as it efficiently produces very important materials and can be performed repeatedly.
Cold rolling, though having disadvantages, satisfies another need as it causes plastic deformation and improves mechanical properties of the metal. This is very useful as it allows stronger sheets of metals to be created.