Online Monitoring of the Friction Coefficient in the Conditions of Digital Enterprise

Digital technologies are currently the bearers of an innovative approach and play an important role in companies in achieving strategic goals more effectively. Adopting an approach to streamlining business processes and managing them through data is a crucial prerequisite for meaningful digitalisation of society and embarking on the path of intelligent automation. A global pandemic is one of the many factors in today’s globalized world that can significantly affect the day-to-day running of any business. Businesses had to react flexibly to this situation from hour to hour and address staff shortages. The aim of the presented article is online monitoring of the coefficient of friction during the pressing process in an engineering company. Appropriate material and friction models were selected in the research so that the simulation results match the test results. High-strength steel sheet, microalloyed steel sheet, galvanized steel sheet and surface-treated sheet metal made of deep-drawn steel were chosen as the material. Frictional forces at the contact surfaces of the tool with the sheet affect the technological characteristics of the process and the resulting quality of the molding. The coefficient of friction can express the friction ratios, the value of which must be entered when defining the input data. Online monitoring in the production process can minimize errors, loss of time and even the employees themselves. By online monitoring of some specific features has been achieved minimization of manual interventions, lower error rate and increased workflow efficiency.