Innovative Assistance System for Setting up a Mechatronic Straightening Machine

High-strength wire materials are usually available as strip material which is further processed in a forming process (e.g. punch-bending). For storage and transport of the semi-finished wire to the customer, the material is wound onto coils. The manufacturing and coiling process introduces plastic deformations into the wire, which lead to undesirable residual stresses and wire curvature of the semi-finished product. These residual stresses and curvatures cause variations in the material properties of the semi-finished product, which have a negative impact on the subsequent product quality. Straightening machines are used to compensate the residual stresses and the curvature in the wire. At the beginning of the straightening process, the straightening machines must be set up in such a way that residual stresses and curvatures are optimally compensated. This setup process is usually a manual and iterative process, where a lot of material is wasted until the optimal settings for the straightening machine are found.In order to reduce the amount of material waste, the operator must be supported in the setup process. In this context, a new and innovative setup assistance system was developed to support the operator during the setup process. The setup assistant system automatically detects the wire curvature by means of an optical measuring system. Based on the optically detected measuring points, the wire curvature is determined by a robust calculation algorithm. Based on a database built up through the carried out experimental and numerical research work, the optimum setting parameters for the straightening machine are suggested to the operator without lengthy trial and error. After confirmation by the operator, the roller settings are automatically adjusted by the mechatronic straightening machine. With the presented method, the conventional iterative setup procedure can be made more resource-efficient and a high straightening quality can be reproducibly achieved.