Adaptable Press Foundation Using Magnetorheological Dampers

Energy-bound forming machines such as forging hammers tend to vibrate due to abruptly applied process forces, which is particularly noticeable in form of intense vibrations of the machine environment. This paper presents a new concept of shock absorbers for forming machines, using dampers filled with magnetorheological fluids. Magnetorheological fluids are suspensions of magnetizable particles in a non-magnetizable carrier fluid. By applying a magnetic field, the internal structures and thus the rheological properties of the fluid can be varied. Using an evolutionary based control strategy, the damping can be adjusted depending on the excitation. The dependencies as well as challenges in the design process of magnetorheological dampers for forming machines are described. In addition, simulation results of foregoing studies concerning damper design and the evolutionary control strategy are presented.