RollerPaG – a Tool for the Automatic Path Generation for Roller Hemming Simulation using LS-DYNA

Compared to tool or table-top hemming, the roller hemming is unique by its specific kinematic. A robot guides a roller along the flange to perform the hemming, with more than one robot used for an assembly in order to speed up the process. Main advantages of the roller hemming are low investment for a new product and short lead time to design and manufacture product specific equipment. Application of roller hemming was up to now restricted to low and middle volume production, though new developments made it more suitable for higher production volumes as well. Because of its special kinematic, the setup of the roller hemming simulation can be rather cumbersome and very time consuming. It is indeed necessary to describe the movement of the rollers along the flange in an accurate way. This paper describes a concept to set up simulation models of roller hemming processes with a high degree of automation. As an essential part of this concept, program RollerPAG is used for the automatic generation of the LS-DYNA input decks including Master Input Deck and the Load Curves which control the rollers motion and orientation during the simulation.