Rapid sheet metal forming

A new off-line robot programming technique has been developed by SimX in order to generate complex end-effector trajectories based on mesh graphic animation. The technique is used by RoboFold® to create sheet metal forms utilising industrial robots. The manufacturing process requires no tooling thus enabling the creation of new forms unavailable with current methods.

The patent pending technology utilises standard industrial robots to directly manipulate sheet material into complex surfaces by folding along curved lines. The RoboFold system will be integrated with software modules to enable design, engineering and production planning in a familiar CAD environment.

SimX is contributing to RoboFold core development with the definition of a unique off-line robot programming technique which will reduce time-to-production consistently for a wide variety of metal shapes. Visual Components graphic capabilities allow the modelling and simulation of the physical behaviour of metal sheets by proper engineered meshes. Then the sequence of synchronised movements executed by a system of co-operative robots which create the desired shape can be calculated off-line directly from mesh animations. The virtual environment modelled in Visual Components is the exact representation of the real robotic workcell. The video shows a simple test case carried out by RoboFold and SimX to prove the effectiveness of the adopted technique.