Design and wear resistance analysis of bionic roller for folding of automobile body cover parts based on pearl shell surface texture

Abstract In order to improve the forming quality of automobile body cover parts, the trundle attrition between the roller and panel in a roll-wrap robot has been investigated to minimize the frictional losses. This paper presents a design scheme of bionic roller structure based on the surface texture of pearl shell. The microstructure of pearl shell surface is analyzed and the mapping model of pearl shell surface structure is established. Meanwhile, the best texture type is determined by simulation analysis and theoretical formula. Based on the optimal texture type, the optimized roller structure is simulated and analyzed by utilizing the golden section method to determine the best depth-to-width ratio. The roller model is made by 3D laser marking mechanism. The validty of the theory and design method is verified by the correspoding experiments. By comparing the simulation and experimental analysis data, it can be seen that the vertical stripe bionic roller achieves the optimal performance when the depth-to-width ratio is 0.382. Compared with the ordinary roller, the maximum principal stress at the node is reduced by 2038.5 N, the frictional loss energy during movement is reduced by 8.43 × 10 8 J, the wear mass is reduced by 285.63%, the wear depth is reduced by 47.4%.