Due to increasing requirements regarding the flatness of sheet metals, the process of roller levelling is of particular importance. The process itself is influenced by a high number of parameters such as machine design, sheet dimension, and material properties. Therefore, it is desirable to provide an online process control to react on changes of those process parameters. One possible approach for the layout of a process control and the identification of reference values is the use of the Finite Element Method (FEM). Considering the alternate bending a sheet metal undergoes when passing through a roller leveller, kinematic hardening of the sheet material must be taken into account. Additionally, the initial stress and strain distribution of the sheet metal – e.g. induced by coiling – has an influence on the material behaviour and consequently on the process parameters. With respect to these effects, a coupled FE model, which accounts for the initial state of the sheet metal, is introduced. An inverse calculation of material parameters describing the behaviour under cyclic load conditions has been done for an aluminium alloy AA5005 and a mild steel DC01. Based on this numerical setup, the influence of the initial stress state in the pre-levelled sheet metal on the roller levelling process has been deduced. Accompanying experiments on a down-sized roller leveller were carried out for a validation of the numerical setup.
