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Engineering 00 (2017) 000–000
Procedia Engineering 00 (2017) 000–000
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Procedia Engineering 207 (2017) 1623–1628

International Conference on the Technology of Plasticity, ICTP 2017, 17-22 September 2017,
International Conference on theCambridge,
TechnologyUnited
of Plasticity,
Kingdom ICTP 2017, 17-22 September 2017,
Cambridge, United Kingdom
Accurate
Accurate prediction
prediction of
of large
large radius
radius air
air bending
bending using
using regression
regression
Vitalii Vorkov*, Richard Aerens, Dirk Vandepitte, Joost R. Duflou
Vitalii Vorkov*, Richard Aerens, Dirk Vandepitte, Joost R. Duflou
Department of Mechanical Engineering, KU Leuven, Celestijnenlaan 300B, 3001, Leuven, Belgium
Department of Mechanical Engineering, KU Leuven, Celestijnenlaan 300B, 3001, Leuven, Belgium

Abstract
Abstract
The industrial importance of air bending applications with high strength steels has increased in recent years. However, the limited
The industrial
bendability importance
of high strengthofsteels
air bending
leads toapplications with
the necessity of high
usingstrength steelspunches.
large radius has increased in recent
The usage years.
of such However,
tooling causesthea limited
change
bendability
of the loadingof high strength
scheme fromsteels leads to3-point
traditional the necessity of to
bending using large bending.
4-point radius punches. The the
Therefore, usage of such tooling
traditional causes
formulas useda for
change
the
of the loading scheme from traditional 3-point bending to 4-point bending. Therefore, the traditional formulas
prediction of bending parameters, such as springback and bend allowance, lack accuracy. In the current contribution, a regression used for the
prediction of bending parameters, such as springback and bend allowance, lack accuracy. In the current contribution,
model is proposed in order to achieve an accurate prediction of bending characteristics. The model is based on phenomenological a regression
model is proposed
observations in order
of bending to achieveand
parameters, anfitting
accurate prediction of bending
of well-established characteristics.
formulas. Large radiusThe modelisisused
bending based on phenomenological
mostly for high-strength
observations
steels, thus theof investigation
bending parameters, and fitting
is performed of well-established
for Domex 700 MC andformulas. Largewith
Weldox 1300 radius bending isofused
thicknesses 4 andmostly
6 mm.forThe
high-strength
following
bending parameters have been investigated: contact points position, bend allowance, bending force, and springback. The following
steels, thus the investigation is performed for Domex 700 MC and Weldox 1300 with thicknesses of 4 and 6 mm. The predicted
bendingare
values parameters
comparedhavewithbeen investigated:
a wide contact pointstests
range of experimental position, bend
and the allowance,ofbending
coefficient force, and
determination (R2)springback. Theinpredicted
is calculated order to
values the
assess are prediction with a wide range of experimental tests and the coefficient of determination (R2) is calculated in order to
compared accuracy.
assess the prediction accuracy.
© 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.
© 2017 The Authors.
Peer-review Published by
under responsibility of Elsevier Ltd.
the scientific committee of the International Conference on the Technology
Peer-review under responsibility of the scientific
the scientific committee
committee of theof the International
International Conference Conference on theofTechnology
on the Technology Plasticity.
of Plasticity.
of Plasticity
Keywords: .
air bending; regression model; sheet metal; springback; bend allowance; bending force
Keywords: air bending; regression model; sheet metal; springback; bend allowance; bending force

1. Introduction
1. Introduction
Air bending is the most popular forming technique within operations performed on bending press brakes, mostly
Air bending
because is therequires
this process most popular
only a forming technique
fraction of within
the forming operations
force performed
in comparison with on bending
other press
bending brakes,
modes. mostly
Typically,
because this process requires only a fraction of the forming force in comparison with other bending modes. Typically,

* Corresponding author. Tel.: +32-1637-2877; fax: +32-475-151-997.

* E-mail
Corresponding
address:author. Tel.: +32-1637-2877; fax: +32-475-151-997.
vitalii.vorkov@kuleuven.be
E-mail address: vitalii.vorkov@kuleuven.be
1877-7058 © 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.
1877-7058
Peer-review©under
2017responsibility
The Authors. of the scientific
Published by Elseviercommittee
Ltd. of the International Conference on the Technology of
Plasticityunder
Peer-review . responsibility of the scientific committee of the International Conference on the Technology of
Plasticity.

1877-7058 © 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Peer-review under responsibility of the scientific committee of the International Conference on the Technology of Plasticity.
10.1016/j.proeng.2017.10.1089
1624 Vitalii Vorkov et al. / Procedia Engineering 207 (2017) 1623–1628
2 Vitalii Vorkov et al. / Procedia Engineering 00 (2017) 000–000

air bending is performed with small radius punches, and this process is further referred to as conventional or small
radius bending. However, conventional bending requires significant formability, which is rarely the case for high-
strength steels. Therefore, the usage of punches with a large radius is recommended for forming materials with limited
bendability, since the forming process imposes lower strains. Large radius bending is known for the multi-breakage
effect and the change of the loading scheme throughout the forming process [1,2].
Two typical approaches to build models upon existing data are regression modelling and neural networks. A
significant number of studies have already been contributed by the sheet metal forming community in order to achieve
an accurate prediction by means of both techniques: examples can be found in [3,4] for regression modelling and in
[4,5] for neural networks. However, most of the regression models and certainly all the artificial neural network models
lack transparency that allows to understand the physical background behind them. This paper aims to build a regression
prediction, which is based on phenomenological observations, or it takes as a starting point existing formulas with a
limited accuracy of prediction due to peculiarities of large radius bending.

2. Experimental investigation

A complete description of the experimental investigation is provided in [6] and the experimental data of more than
600 tests can be found in [7]. Two high-strength materials are used for comparison with the regression model: Weldox
1300 (4.15 mm and 5.99 mm) and Domex 700 MC (3.99 and 5.99 mm). Table 1 lists the material parameters. Four
different dies were selected for testing: 40 mm, 50 mm, 60 mm and 80 mm. Punches with a radius of 10 and 20 mm
are used for every die, a radius of 30 mm is used for the 60 mm and 80 mm dies, and a radius of 40 mm is used for an
80 mm die. Fig. 1b shows the notation for the plate and tooling dimensions.

Table 1. Material parameters of high-strength steels Domex 700 MC and Weldox 1300 [6].
Thickness t, Elasticity Secant elasticity Ultimate stress Rm,
Material mm modulus E, GPa modulus Esec, GPa MPa
Weldox 1300 4.15, 5.99 197.5 181.9 1596.63 (ε = 3.9%)
Domex 700 MC 3.99, 5.99 205.0 188.2 880.75 (ε = 4.6%)

Fig. 1. (a) Press-brake and testing equipment; (b) tooling and plate dimensions; (с) an extracted profile from a bending video.

2.1. Set-up description

The experimental investigation has been conducted on a press brake with a capacity of 500 kN (see Fig. 1a). A
high-speed camera, mounted on the upper ram of the press brake, recorded the process. In order to minimise the
telecentric effect, the camera was clamped as far as possible (1.5 meter) from the tooling. The bending process was
monitored through a LabVIEW script: a profile of the plate was extracted from the obtained images and the angle was
measured (see Fig. 1c). A force cell (see Fig. 1a) which consists of two Kistler 9031a washers measured the bending
force. Force measurements were logged by a LabVIEW script, and synchronised with the video script.
 Vitalii Vorkov et al. / Procedia Engineering 207 (2017) 1623–1628 1625
Vitalii Vorkov et al. / Procedia Engineering 00 (2017) 000–000 3

2.2. Bending characteristics

Four bending characteristics have been selected for the prediction by means of the regression analysis: position of
contact points (see Fig. 2a), springback (see Fig. 2b), bending force, and bend allowance or BA (see Fig. 2c). The
latter three characteristics represent the most relevant industrial process and product parameters. The position of the
contact points between a punch and a plate determines the bending force and should be considered carefully to achieve
an adequate prediction.

Fig. 2. (a) Position of contact points; (b) forming angles; (c) bend allowance (or BA), where l 0 is the initial length of a plate.

3. Regression modelling

This section describes the regression model. The model is based on phenomenological observations and classical
formulas, and further compared with the experimental data of the large radius air bending process which are reported
in [6]. Extensive analysis and interpretation of the large data set that was generated in that work made clear that
process and product parameters exhibit clear tendencies, which should in principle qualify a regression model concept
for the quantification of process laws.
All fitting procedures and statistical parameter calculations were carried out in JMP Pro 13 software with
polynomial centring, which allows making the regression coefficient more interpretable when interactions are
presented in a model. The effect in the regression model is considered significant if the p-value is less than 0.01. All
graphs in this section show the averaged experimental data along with the standard errors of the data points.

3.1. Contact points position

The position of the contact points (see Fig. 2a) strongly obeys the linear trend with respect to the bending angle, as
shown in Fig. 3 and Fig. 4, where, for clarity, data are presented together with a possible linear fit. This parameter
shows only limited dependency on the material characteristics, whereas it strongly depends on the tooling and plate
dimensions. After the fitting procedure, the position of the contact points (parameter “c” as defined in Fig. 2a) is
modelled as:
𝑐𝑐 = 25.932841 + 0.478546 𝑡𝑡 + 0.517953 𝑅𝑅𝑝𝑝 − 0,035017 𝑤𝑤0 − 0.217015 𝛽𝛽 −
0.010326 · (𝑅𝑅𝑝𝑝 − 20.419161)(𝛽𝛽 − 121.430506) + 0.000673 · (𝑤𝑤0 − 62.395210)(𝛽𝛽 − 121.430506), (1)

where t – plate thickness [mm], Rp – punch radius [mm], w0 – die opening [mm], β - bending angle [°].
Domex 700MC 4 mm 10.0 Domex 700 MC 6 mm 20
Weldox 1300 4 mm Weldox 1300 6 mm
Linear fit 7.5 Linear fit 15

5.0 c, mm 10 c, mm

2.5 5

0
0.0
160 140 120 100 80
160 140 120 100 80
Bending angle, ° Bending angle, °
Fig. 3. Position of the contact points for a die opening of 60 mm and a Fig. 4. Position of the contact points for a die opening of 60 mm and a
punch radius of 10 mm. punch radius of 30 mm.
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3.2. Bend allowance

When considered for the same geometrical configuration of the plate and tooling the bend allowance does not show
a significant dependence on the material, as shown by Fig. 5 and Fig. 6. Analysis of the experimental data shows that
Equation 2 provides a suitable approximation for this parameter. Fig. 5 and Fig. 6 present possible fit curves along
with the experimental data.
′ )∙ 𝑓𝑓
𝐵𝐵𝐵𝐵 = 1 − 𝑒𝑒 (180−𝛽𝛽 1 (2)
where β' - product angle [°], f1 – the fitting parameter.
Product angle, ° Product angle, °
170 150 130 110 90 170 150 130 110 90
0.0 0

-5
-5.0
BA, BA,
-10
mm mm
Domex 700 MC 4 mm -10.0 Domex 700 MC 6 mm
Weldox 1300 6 mm -15
Weldox 1300 4 mm
Fit according to Equation 2 Fit according to Equation 2
-15.0 -20
Fig. 5. Bend allowance for a die opening of 50 mm and a punch radius Fig. 6. Bend allowance for a die opening of 80 mm and a punch radius
of 20 mm. of 30 mm.

After a non-linear fitting procedure of the geometrical parameters, the fitting parameter f1 is defined as:
𝑓𝑓1 = 0.024196 + 0.000761 𝑡𝑡 + 0.000220 𝑅𝑅𝑝𝑝 − 0.000015 ∙ (𝑡𝑡 − 5)(𝑤𝑤0 − 61.82) −
0.000002 ∙ (𝑅𝑅𝑝𝑝 − 20)(𝑤𝑤0 − 61.82) + 0.000038 ∙ (𝑡𝑡 − 5)(𝑅𝑅𝑝𝑝 − 20) + 0.000006 ∙ (𝑅𝑅𝑝𝑝 − 20)(𝑅𝑅𝑝𝑝 − 20), (3)

where t – plate thickness [mm], Rp – punch radius [mm], w0 – die opening [mm], β - bending angle [°].

3.3. Bending force

A traditional formula for the calculation of the bending force per the unit length is [8]:
𝑅𝑅𝑚𝑚 ∙𝑡𝑡 2
𝐹𝐹 = 𝐾𝐾 , (4)
𝑤𝑤0

where K is a constant [-], Rm the ultimate strength [MPa], t the plate thickness [mm], w0 the die opening [mm].
Equation 4, however, does not take into account the fact that the loading scheme changes gradually during the
forming phase due to the multi-breakage effect (see Fig. 7a and c). The more realistic estimation of the effective die
opening is achieved by the following formula that takes into account the actual loading scheme:
180−𝛽𝛽
𝑤𝑤𝑒𝑒𝑒𝑒 = 𝑤𝑤 − 𝑅𝑅𝑑𝑑 𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠 − 𝑐𝑐, (5)
2

where Rd – die radius [mm], β – bending angle [°], c – position of contact points [mm], w is calculated according to
the following equation (see also Fig. 7b):
𝛼𝛼𝑑𝑑
𝑤𝑤 = 𝑤𝑤0 + 2𝑅𝑅𝑑𝑑 𝑡𝑡𝑡𝑡𝑡𝑡(45 − ) (6)
4

Taking into account the evolution of the loading scheme and considering that the position of the contact points has
a non-linear effect on the bending force, the reasonable fitting model for this parameter is expressed, by substitution
of Equation 4 in Equation 5 and adding the fitting parameters, as:
𝑅𝑅𝑚𝑚 ∙𝑡𝑡 2
𝐹𝐹 = 𝑓𝑓2 180−𝛽𝛽 − 𝑓𝑓4 (7)
𝑤𝑤−𝑅𝑅𝑑𝑑 𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠 −𝑐𝑐 𝑓𝑓3
2
where f2, f3, and f4 – fitting parameters, c is calculated according to Equation 1.
 Vitalii Vorkov et al. / Procedia Engineering 207 (2017) 1623–1628 1627
Vitalii Vorkov et al. / Procedia Engineering 00 (2017) 000–000 5

Fig. 7. (a) Large radius bending loading scheme; (b) die opening calculation; (c) the bending moment diagram for large radius bending, with the
selected elasticity modulus for every part of the plate.

After the non-linear fitting procedure, the resulting equations for the bending force calculation are obtained by
inserting the corresponding fitting parameters from Table 2 into Equation 7.

Table 2. Fitting parameters for the bending force model according to Equation 7.
Material f2 f3 f4
Domex 700 MC 1.332143 1,153731 -333,911524
Weldox 1300 0.760286 1,209006 5,000997
600 Domex 700 MC 6 mm 2000

Prediction according
525 to Equation 4 (K=1.5) 1625
Weldox 1300 4 mm Bending Fit according to Bending
450 force, Equation 7 1250 force,
Prediction according to Equation 4 (K=1.5)
kN/m kN/m
Fit according to Equation 7
375 875

300 500
160 140 120 100 80 160 140 120 100 80
Bending angle, ° Bending angle, °
Fig. 8. Bending force for a die opening of 80 mm and a punch radius Fig. 9. Bending force for a die opening of 60 mm and a punch radius
of 10 mm of 30 mm.

3.4. Springback

The springback as the recovery of the elastic deformations after the removal of applied loads is written as [9]:
2 𝑙𝑙𝑡𝑡𝑡𝑡𝑡𝑡
∆𝛽𝛽 = ∫ 𝑀𝑀 𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑 (8)
𝐸𝐸 ′ 𝐼𝐼 0
where M - the internal bending moment, E' - the plane strain modulus (E' = E / (1-ν )), ν - the Poisson ratio, I - the 2

second moment of area about the middle axis (I = bt3/12), and L – the position of the plate along a curvilinear axis.
Transverse displacement of the plate is separated into two regions, as shown in Fig. 7a and c. In the outer regions,
the displacement pattern is rather straight, whereas significant curvature is observed in the central region. Yang et al.
[10] have shown that the variation of elastic modulus due to deformation has a prime effect on the resulting value of
springback. Thus two different values of elasticity modulus E and Esec (see Table 1) are assigned to these regions (see
Fig. 7c). Finally, the equation for the springback is written as:
12𝑀𝑀𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚 2𝑐𝑐 𝑠𝑠 180
∆𝛽𝛽 = 𝑡𝑡3
(𝑓𝑓5 𝐸𝐸′ + 𝑓𝑓6 𝐸𝐸′ ) 𝜋𝜋
+ 𝑓𝑓7 (9)
𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠
where Mmax - the maximum bending moment (Mmax=F/2·(s-c) see Fig. 7c) [N·mm], E'sec - the secant plain strain
modulus (E'sec = Esec / (1-ν2)) [MPa], f5, f6, and f7 - the fitting parameters.
Fig. 10 and Fig. 11 show examples of experimental data for the springback and the possible fitting according to
Equation 9. Table 3 presents the final fitting parameters for the springback calculation.
1628 Vitalii Vorkov et al. / Procedia Engineering 207 (2017) 1623–1628
6 Vitalii Vorkov et al. / Procedia Engineering 00 (2017) 000–000

Table 3. Fitting parameters for the springback model according to Equation 9.

Material f5 f6 f7
Domex 700 MC 1.249607 1.118231 0.076336
Weldox 1300 1.303728 1.210293 -0.431353
20.0 12.0
Domex 700 MC 4 mm
17.5 10.5
Fit according to
15.0 Springback, ° Equation 8 9.0 Springback, °
Weldox 1300 6 mm
12.5 7.5
Fit according to Equation 8
10.0 6.0
160 140 120 100 80 160 140 120 100 80
Bending angle, ° Bending angle, °
Fig. 10. Springback for a die opening of 80 mm and a punch radius of Fig. 11. Springback for a die opening of 60 mm and a punch radius of
40 mm 20 mm.
4. Discussion
The coefficient of determination or R2 for every bending characteristic and material was calculated (see Table 4)
to provide the information about the quality of the fit of the regression model with the experimental data.
Table 4. Coefficient of determination R2 for the obtained regression predictions.
Material Contact points position Bend allowance (BA) Bending force Springback
Domex 700 MC 0.9890 0.9565 0.8713 0.9240
Weldox 1300 0.9890 0.9565 0.9494 0.9659
The regression formulas can be used as an accurate approximation tool for the calculation of the industrially
relevant bending characteristics for large radius bending for parameter settings within the working space, which is
bounded by the experiments. The formulas for bend allowance and contact points do not depend on the material
parameters and are expected to be valid for any tool combination. For the bending force and springback, only a few
tests should be done to predict for a new material, since the physics reflected by the underlying equations as shown in
the current work are generic for large radius bending. It is important to note that only a limited number of material
characteristics is needed to achieve acceptable results: elastic modulus, ultimate stress (which are the easily available
data), and secant elastic modulus. In addition, the secant elastic modulus can be substituted by the initial elastic
modulus, but the results are expected to be less accurate in this case.
5. Conclusions
Based on the regression modelling an accurate prediction of the large radius bending was achieved. The proposed
model was compared with a wide range of experiments and the quality of the regression prediction is estimated by the
calculated coeffients of determination (R2).
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