1.

Drawing the rollers

To design the rollers for the roll forming process in Simufact Forming, the drawing in
.dxf files need to be done first. Any CAD software that supports .dxf can be used to draw the
rollers. There are certain aspects that need to be noted:
a) The drawing of the rollers needs to be done in 2D. Only the cross-sectional shape
needed to be drawn as Simufact Forming will revolved the drawing into 3D model.
b) Rollers need to be consisted of two or more rollers in one drawing. One stage of roll
forming process for one drawing.
*The software used in this training module is QCAD

Drawing rollers for 30o

Step 1: Drawing 2D shape of the rollers

1. Make sure that the drawing starts at
the centre of the drawing sheet.
This is marked with red crosshair.
2. Locate the LHS window for
drawing tools. Click on the Line
tool. Draw a horizontal line
starting from the origin point.
3. Use RHS window to adjust the
line.

Origin point
 4. Draw another line with an angle starting from the endpoint of the horizontal line.
5. Adjust the angle and the length from the RHS window.
6. To draw the top roller, form L shape using the line tool.

Note: Make sure that there is a gap between top roller and bottom roller. The gap must be the
thickness of the sheet.
Step 2: Creating fillet
1. Filleting tool can be found on the LHS

window. Select on the Tools icon

and click on the Fillet icon.

2. Click on the adjoining lines that need
to be filleted.
3. In the top left bar, the radius of the
fillet can be adjusted. Set the radius to
4mm.
4. Fillet is created.
Lines intersecting

Step 3: Creating mirror image

1. On the LHS window, select Tools

icon and click on the Mirror icon.

2. Locate the symmetry axis (which in
this case is the Y-axis) and click on
the axis.
3. Click Okay to confirm the mirroring.
4. Mirror image is created, and full
Symmetry
drawing is obtained. axis

Note: The previous steps are only half of the

full drawing
 60 degrees and 90 degrees rollers drawing
The drawings for the next set of rollers follow the same approach as the 30
degrees rollers. The difference is only the bottom rollers where the angle will need to be
done for the 60 degrees and 90 degrees.

60 degrees rollers
 For 60 degrees rollers, there are top and bottom rollers. The properties for the angled
line are shown in the figure.

90 degrees rollers
 For 90 degrees rollers, there are 4 rollers in total. The full drawing is as follows.
 2. Creating new project
To perform the simulation using the software, the users need to create a new
project in Simufact Forming. This will ensure that the users can use the file later and also
save the progress of the ongoing simulation.

Creating New project

Step 1: Create New Project in Simufact

Forming C
C
1. Click on the File on the top menu
bar to view available options.
2. Select the New project to create
new Simufact Forming project.

Step 2: Choosing Forming process

1. In the dialog box, click on the Sheet
metal forming option.
2. Click Okay to confirm the selection.

Step 3: Determining process main

description
1. Choose Roll forming in the process
 type box.
2. Set the temperature of the process to
20oC.
3. Click Okay to confirm the selection.

Note: The temperature can be adjusted to

the desired process temperature
 3. Inserting rollers into the die

Inserting Rollers (.dxf)

Step 1: Inserting rollers

1. Right click on the LHS
window.
2. Select Geometry. C
3. Select Roll forming.
4. Click on Roll from
C C
DXF file.
5. In the new dialog box,
click on the to add
rollers.
6. Select the desired
rollers in .dxf file.

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Note: The rollers drawing
should be done first before
importing the file into Simufact
Forming.

Step 2: Adjusting the rollers

position
1. Input value of 150mm
into the start box.
2. Set 585mm as the offset
for the rollers.
 3. Click Okay to confirm
the selection.

Notes: Multiple rollers can be

added in this step. Select all the
desired rollers in the correct
sequence during inserting.

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 4. Creating workpiece for the simulation

Inserting workpiece
Step 1: Insert workpiece
1. Right click on the LHS window to show the creation options.
2. Select Geometry.
3. Select Roll forming.
4. Click Initial sheet.
Step 2: Setting up the workpiece
1. In the new window, user can adjust the workpiece.
2. Adjust the length, thickness and width of the workpiece using the value in the figure.
3. Tick on the symmetry workpiece box to model only half of the workpiece. This can
save processing time.

Note: The feed can also be created by inserting value in the feed box.
 Simulation strategy for simulation
Strategy 1: Meshing strategy in the length direction (Z-direction)
If a distortion in long direction is needed, the model with the whole length 1800
mm and coarse mesh (e.g: only 1 element in thickness direction). If the whole model is
always wanted for evaluation, a simulation with coarse mesh as start. In this test, element
size to maintain the element number at approx. 150 k. For this target the element size is
in Z-direction 2 mm and in X-direction 1 mm. For only a distortion in Z-direction only
one element in thickness direction is sufficient.

Create meshing size

1. In the create workpiece window (as in the previous section), find the mesh element
size menu.

2. Set the value of X-direction size to 1mm and the Z-direction to 2mm.
3. As for the layer in the thickness direction (Y-direction), set it to Manual layers. Input
the targeted layer for the mesh. (For this case, the layer is 1)
 Strategy 2: Meshing strategy in the bending area (X-direction)
For fine-tuning/evaluation of e.g. bending and thickness after roll forming,
suggested a fine mesh with a short length, e.g. the model with 150 mm long sheet. For the
bending area (+/- 6.8 to 16.8 mm) the element size in X direction is set as 0.25 mm with
three elements in thickness direction. With a coarse mesh some details may be lost in
simulation, but how great the influence would be is unknown. For bending better with at
least 2 elements in thickness direction.

Create refinement meshing

1. Double click on the workpiece sheet
to bring up refine meshing window.
2. Select the position of the refine mesh
based on the width of the workpiece.
3. Set 0.25mm as the element width.
4. Use manual layers and set target ratio
to 3.
5. Click Okay to confirm the refinement
meshing.
Creating material for the workpiece

In Simufact Forming 16.0, the library offered variety of materials to be applied to the workpiece.
For this simulation, the material used will be the SUS304 which equivalent to the stainless-steel
commonly used in the sheet forming process. It is possible for the user to self-define the material that is
going to be used in the simulation by simply adding the material using the manual function.

Using the library function

Step 1: Choosing materials from library
1. In the LHS window, right click to find the
Material option
2. Click Library
3. In the material window, click on the types
of material in the menu
4. To find the material, click on the Find bar
and type the material to be use
5. Click on the SUS304 material
6. Click Okay to confirm the selection

Note: The materials properties can be viewed by

double clicking the material
Step 2: Inserting materials into the workpiece
1. On the LHS window, find the created
material
2. Click and drag the material into the
workpiece in the process tree
3. The applied material will be placed under
the workpiece tree
Using the manual function
Step 1: Creating the material
1. Right click on the LHS window and
choose Material
2. Click on Manual
3. In the window, the name and code of the
material going to be created can be set
4. Material properties can be set including
 engineering properties, thermal
properties, flow curve, etc.
5. Once all the properties have been set,
click on Okay to confirm the selection
6. Material is created

Note: The process of adding the material to the

workpiece is the same as the previous step
 6. Creating worktable process
Worktable process for the simulation needs to be created in order to mount all of
the dies and rollers. This is to ensure that the rollers can be set into motion by mounting it
to onto the worktable, which the motion can be define by the users later.

Create table press

Step 1: Creating manual press
1. Right click on the LHS window
to bring up creation tools.
2. Select Press.
3. Click Manual.

Step 2: Defining press process

1. In the press type, choose
Tabular motion.
2. Add a process to indicate the
end of the process by clicking
the button.
3. For 3 rollers, set 0s for the start
time and 34s for the end time.
4. Set the speed of both the
process with -100mm/s.
5. Click Okay to confirm the
 process.

Notes:
i. The (-ve) sign indicates that the
table is moving out from its
axis.
ii. For this simulation, the rollers
are moving while the workpiece
is static.

5. Creating friction to the model

During the rolling process, there may be some friction force generated by the sheet and
the rollers. Simufact Forming allows the user to create a friction to be applied onto the model
to further simulate the real working situation of the process in hand. There are several friction
models that is available inside the Simufact Forming which includes:

i. Coulomb friction model

ii. Shear friction model
iii. Combined model
Creating friction for the model
Step 1: Creating friction
1. Right click on the LHS
window to bring up creation
options.
2. Select friction.
3. Click Manual.

Step 2: Defining the friction condition

1. Select General on the left tab.
2. Choose Manual for the specification mode.
3. Click on the Coulomb friction law.
4. Set the value of friction coefficient to 0.2
5. Click Okay to confirm the selection.

Note: Other friction law can also be use depending on the type of the process.
 6. Remeshing function

Due to some limitations, the remeshing function in this Simufact Forming version cannot
be used. If remeshing is to be enabled, the simulation will not be completed and stopped
halfway. To avoid this, remeshing function need to be disabled.

Create remeshing
Step 1: Manual remeshing
1. Right click on the LHS window
to view creation options.
2. Select Remeshing.
3. Click on Manual.

Step 2: Disabling the remeshing

function
1. Tick on the Never box to disable
the remeshing function done to
the workpiece.
2. Click Okay to confirm the
selection.
 7. Creating contact table
Contact table is created to ensure that all the models created; workpiece, rollers,
etc. are in contact with each other. If the contact is not defined, the simulation will not be
accurate. This function can also be used to skip a certain point in the simulation by
disabling the model.

Create FE contact table

Step 1: Creating contact table
1. Right click on the Project in the
process tree. C

2. Select Insert.
3. Click FE contact table.
4. The contact table window will
pop up.
Defining the contact
Step 1: Enabling all the models
1. Click on the Sheet to display all
C
the contacting body.
2. Tick all the boxes for the model.
3. As for the constraint plane, high
separation value needed to avoid
the sheet to move. Set the value to
1.0e+20.
4. Click Okay to confirm the
selection.

Note: The components should be defined

as touching for the contact type.

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 8. Running the simulation
Before running the simulation, the forming control for the simulation needs to be
determined. This option consists of several components. By controlling the simulation,
the postprocessing can improve the overall time consumption and the accuracy (in some
cases) of the simulation.

Changing the forming control

1. Double click on Forming under
C
the process tree.
2. In Sub-stages menu, tick the
Deformation box for the
forming process.
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3. In Output divisions menu, tick
on the Equal division box and C
set the value to 200. (Value
can vary depending on users)
4. In Output results menu, tick on
the following boxes. (Refer
C
figure)
5. In Parallelization menu, set the C
number of cores that will be
use for the simulation. In this
case, set value to 6.
C
Note: The number of cores that can be
C
used depend on the hardware. Slower
hardware might need to lower the
value of cores used.

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Running the simulation
1. To run the simulation, locate the icon at the bottom bar. Click on the icon.
2. Click Okay to continue with the simulation.

Note: If there are any errors when modelling, the simulation will not start. The error dialog
will error indicating the error so that the users can fix it.