Virtual Verification of the Hemming Process

Important results from the project

The goal has been to develop methods and tools to be able to virtually verify the hemming process including the application and curing of adhesive and thus be able to improve the quality of the products the automotive industry delivers. The aim has been to, through a combination of physical tests that can demonstrate behaviors and dependencies and the development of virtual tools, be able to improve the possibilities of predicting in a better way what can happen in products with difficult geometric conditions.

Expected long term effects

The work and developed technology shows that the simulation of hemming can be introduced and provide a higher resource efficiency in the implementation of new products, shorten the testing time, increase flexibility and significantly reduce the need for post-processing. The project also contributes to digitalisation of the industry by being able to assess the production consequences virtually already in the concept and preparation phase, which is expected to lead to an increase in the ability to assess the environmental impact of new material combinations as well.

Approach and implementation

The work to combine physical tests that can demonstrate behaviors and dependencies and a development of virtual tools combined with industrial cases has worked well. Based on previous results that have shown that the interaction with adhesive application is crucial for predicting the real outcome, the project has developed methods, techniques and algorithms to be able to simulate the hemming process including adhesive, which was then used to verify that the results agree with experiments on selected sample bodies.