Tracking Panel Movement during Stamping Process Using Advanced Optical Technology

Metal panels are comprehensively applied in the automotive industry. A significant issue with metal panels is the deflection when moving in the press line of the stamping process. Unpredictable deflection could result in the cut off of the press line. To control the deflection in a safe zone, finite element tools are used to simulate the panel transform process. However, the simulation requires experimental validation where conventional displacement measurement techniques could not satisfy the requirement of vast filed displacement and accuracy point tracking. In this study, multi-camera digital image correlation (DIC) systems have been developed to track the movement of panels during the press line of the stamping process. There are some advantages of applying the DIC system, including non-contact, full-field, high accuracy, and direct measurement techniques that provide the evaluation displacement of the metal panel and press line. Nevertheless, the traditional stereo DIC system (with two cameras) has a limited field of vision, and the multi-camera DIC system expands the field of vision and enables the measurement of panel deflection during the stamping process. Six cameras were applied parallelly at same plane in proper to record the entire transformation process of the metal panel from rises up until drop off. Every two cameras constitute a stereo DIC system, and six cameras build three pairs. Two adjacent pairs have an overlapping zone so that the data measured can be stitched together. In this paper, we will describe the proper methodology to measure panel movement and to separate the panel vibration from the panel movement