Sensors for future press-hardening

Purpose and goal

The purpose of the project was to support the development of process monitoring systems for hot-forming of high-strength aluminium by investigating whether data from different imaging sensors could fulfil the specific needs for that application. The project aimed to increase the knowledge about sensor systems for temperature measurements of aluminium in a realistic production environment for hot-forming of high-strength aluminium.

Expected results and effects

The project has provided a lot of valuable knowledge about temperature monitoring of aluminium under the conditions that exists in hot-forming production line. This will serve as a basis for development and design work with the purpose of obtaining a process monitoring system for hot-forming of high-strength aluminium. The goal is to provide solutions both for new facilities and up-grades for existing production lines.

Planned approach and implementation

Termisk Systemteknik has developed a simulation model to predict the influence of different factors on the measurement accuracy. University West has investigated how the emissivity of aluminium changes with temperature and surface coating. Termisk Systemteknik, University West and AP&T have jointly investigated how different measurement systems work, and under which conditions they are useful for determining the temperature of sheet aluminium of different emissivity with sufficient accuracy.