Experimental identification of a thermo-mechanical model for air bending

Experimental validation of thermo-mechanical modelling of air bending at high temperature is presented in this paper. A non-conventional experimental set up is designed and fabricated. Heating device is based on lineal heating along bend length, so temperature distribution is generated in sheet metal, it is previously instrumented to measure temperature. Bending device is based on a commercial press brake instrumented to measure bending force and punch displacement. Bending angle is measured before and after unloading. Model errors, defined by differences between calculated and measured values, were small. Developed work has proved that high temperature bending is easy to implement in industry, and developed model is able to predict accurately process parameters.