Flat die rolling is a solid forming operation, in which two engraved tool plates run past each other and thereby form a cylindrical semi-finished product. The non-circular rolling can be used as a preform optimising process, where it should be possible to form local non-circular sections, for example ellipses or eccentrics, into a cylindrical semi-finished product. The material flow should be exclusively in radial direction. Initial simulations show that the requirements can be met.
non-circular rolling, cross wedge rolling, flat dies, preforms and intermediate forms, FEM
Multi-stage forging process chains are often used for the efficient production of complex geometries. Typically, these consist of homogeneous heating, one or more preform stages, and the final forging step. By inhomogeneously heated billets, the process chains can be simplified or shortened. This shall be achieved by setting various temperature fields within a billet, resulting in different yield stresses. These can influence the material flow, leading to easier production of complex parts. In this study, the influence of inhomogeneously heated billets on the forming process is investigated by means of FEA. For this purpose, two process chains including inhomogeneous heating and three homogeneously heated reference process chains are developed and compared. Each process chain is optimized until form filling and no defects occur. Target figures for the assessment are necessary forming force, the amount of material necessary to achieve form filling and die abrasion wear. For process chains with inhomogeneously heated billets, the results showed a small time window of about 5 s for a successful forming in terms of form filling. Forming forces and die abrasion wear increase for inhomogeneously heated billets due to higher initial flow stresses. However, the flash ratio decreases when billets are heated inhomogeneously. Depending on their size, inhomogeneously heated billets show up to 11.8% less flash than homogeneously heated billets. This shows a potential for the use of inhomogeneous heating to make forging processes more efficient. Subsequently, experimental tests will be carried out to verify the results of the simulations.
Inhomogeneous heating, Forging, FEA, Resource efficiency, Preform operation
To increase the economic efficiency in the production of geometrically complicated forgings, material efficiency is a determining factor. In this study, a method is being validated to automatically design a multi-staged forging sequence initially based on the CAD file of the forging. The method is intended to generate material-efficient forging sequences and reduce development time and dependence on reference processes in the design of forging sequences. Artificial neural networks are used to analyze the geometry of the forging and classify it into a shape class. Result of the analysis is information on component characteristics, such as bending and holes. From this, special operations such as a bending process in the forging sequence can be derived. A slicer algorithm is used to divide the CAD file of the forging into cutting planes and calculate the mass distribution around the center of gravity line of the forging. An algorithm approaches the mass distribution and cross-sectional contour step by step from the forging to the semi-finished product. Each intermediate form is exported as a CAD file. The algorithm takes less than 10 min to design a four-stage forging sequence. The designed forging sequences are checked by FE simulations. Quality criteria that are evaluated and investigated are form filling and folds. First FE simulations show that the automatically generated forging sequences allow the production of different forgings. In an iterative adaptation process, the results of the FE simulations are used to adjust the method to ensure material-efficient and process-reliable forging sequences.
Automatic process design, Forging, FEA, Resource efficiency, CAD
A method is presented that enables the complexity of a forging to be determined automatically on the basis of the CAD file of the forging. An automated evaluation of the forging complexity is necessary for a digitized and automated design of stage sequences in order to be able to determine important design parameters such as the flash ratio or the number of stages.
CAD, forming technology, algorithms
The production of hybrid components involves a long process chain, which leads to high investment costs even before machining. To increase process safety and process quality during finishing, it is necessary to provide information about the semi-finished parts geometry for the machining process and to identify defect components at an early stage. This paper presents an investigation to predict variations in dimension and cavities inside the material during cross-wedge rolling of shafts based on measured tool pressure. First, the process is investigated with respect to the variation in diameter for three roll gaps and two materials. Subsequently, features are generated from the hydraulic pressures of the tools and multi-linear regression models are developed in order to determine the resulting diameters of the shaft shoulder. These models show bet-ter prediction accuracy than models based on meta-data about set roll gap and formed material. The features are additionally used to successfully monitor the process with regard to the Mannesmann effect. Finally, a sensor concept for a new cross-wedge rolling machine to improve the prediction of the workpiece geometry and a new approach for monitoring machining processes of workpieces with dimensional variations are presented for upcoming studies.
Cross-Wedge Rolling, Forming, hybrid, tailored forming
Warm forged components have better surface properties and higher dimensional accuracy than hot forged components. Diamond-like-carbon (DLC) coatings can be used as wear protection coatings, which are anti-adhesive and extremely hard (up to 3500 HV), to increase tool service life. In the first funding period of the research project at the IPH – Institut für Integrierte Produktion Hannover gGmbH and the Institute for Surface Technology (IOT) of the Technical University of Braunschweig in cooperation with the Fraunhofer Institute for Surface Engineering and Thin Films (IST), the influence of different coating types and process temperatures on tool wear was investigated. The result is, that DLC coatings can reduce tool wear in some cases significantly, but that their service life is strongly dependent on the temperature. Coating-integrated temperature measurement could not be realised at that point, due to adhesion challenges. During the second funding period, the effect of multilayer DLC coatings on tool wear was investigated. Also, an additional method of the temperature measurement on the engraving surface using thin film sensors was developed in order to correlate the local process temperature and local layer wear. In this work, the development of and the results gathered by the thin film temperature sensors are presented, which enable for more accurate temperature measurements than commonly used thermocouples. Their functionality and durability under high loads were investigated and showed to be promising.
DLC2, warm forging, forging, wear, forming
Forging can be used to produce components with excellent mechanical properties. However, conventional drop forging does not offer the possibility of introducing undercuts into a workpiece and creating complex geometries with one forging stroke.
forging, undercuts
Solid formed components are subject to ever higher load requirements while at the same time striving for resource efficiency.
ciency at the same time. An ultrafine-grained microstructure can improve the strength and ductility of the component. This makes it possible to design smaller and lighter components and to exploit lightweight construction potential. One possibility
process for producing an ultrafine-grained microstructure is cross wedge rolling.
Cross wedge rolling, Fine-grained structure, Lightweight construction
In a research project at the Institute for Integrated Production in Hanover, the process parameters for cross-wedge rolling are to be determined with which an ultrafine microstructure can be achieved in cylindrical blanks. The aim is to achieve grain sizes of the rolled part in the range of 500 nm.
Process development, cross wedge rolling, material properties,Ultra fine microstructure
This paper presents concepts for shock and vibration reduction of a forging tongs. In the forging industry, hand-operated forging tongs are often used for the machining of forged parts. Here, the employees are exposed to high loads from shocks and vibrations of the forming machines. A simulation model that has been created evaluates concepts for reducing the shocks and vibrations during forging
Ergonomics, forging, shock and vibration reduction
For the industrial establishment of multi-directional forging processes, expected tool life and economical production are essential. In this paper, the influence of different process parameters on the wear behavior of slider tools is investigated within a simulation study. The results make it possible to identify the wear-inducing process parameters and to optimize a process design in relation to the resulting tool life.
wear, slider tools, forging processes
Handling hot steel parts weighing several kilos is physically demanding. A new type of forging tongs is designed to reduce stress at work, prevent pain and reduce sick leave.
forging, ergonomic, stress reduction
The aim of subproject B1 of the Collaborative Research Center (CRC) 1153 is to determine the formability of novel hybrid semi-finished products by means of incremental forming cross wedge rolling. Main aspect is the forming of hybrid semi-finished products made of steel, aluminium and hard material alloys. In order to reduce the component weight, the use of hybrid semi-finished products makes it possible to manufacture less stressed segments of a previously monolithic component from a light metal. To increase wear resistance, a component area (e.g. a bearing seat) can be coated with a hard material. In addition, process variables (e.g. temperature and force) are to be measured in contact between work piece and tool in the future. There are primarily two material arrangements for the semi-finished products used: coated (coaxial - demonstrator shaft 1) and joined at the front (serial - demonstrator shaft 3). One challenge is the heating of the semi-finished products necessary for forming, since the hybrid semi-finished product has different flow resistances due to the different materials and may have to be heated inhomogeneously in order to enable uniform forming.
cross-wedge rolling, forming, hybrid work pieces, tailored forming, hybrid semi-finished products
To this day, the design of preforms for hot forging processes is still a manual trial and error process and therefore time consuming. Furthermore, its quality vastly depends on the engineer’s experience. At the same time, the preform is the most influencing stage for the final forging result. To overcome the dependency on the engineer’s experience and time-consuming optimization processes this paper presents and evaluates a preform optimization by an algorithm for cross wedge rolled preforms. This algorithm takes the mass distribution of the final part, the preform volume, the shape complexity, the appearance of folds in the final part and the occurring amount of flash into account. This forms a multi-criteria optimization problem resulting in large search spaces. Therefore, an evolutionary algorithm is introduced. The developed algorithm is tested with the help of a connecting rod to estimate the influence of the algorithm parameters. It is found that the developed algorithm is capable of creating a suitable preform for the given criteria in less than a minute. Furthermore, two of the five given algorithm parameters, the selection pressure und the population size, have significant influence on the optimization duration and quality.
preform optimization, genetic algorithm, cross wedge rolled, adaptive flash
This paper presents a method for the automated classification of forged parts for classification into the Spies order of shapes by artificial neural networks. The aim is to develop a recognition program within the framework of automated forging sequence planning, which can directly identify a shape class from the CAD file of the forged part and characteristics of the forged part relevant for the design of the process.
forging, ANN,CAD
The Hybrid Forging Process satisfies the needs of modern structural and material lightweight engineering by combining forming and mechanical joining operations within one process. This paper presents an analytical approach for the prediction of symmetrical joining bonds of bulk material and sheet metal. Finite element simulations verify that the analytical approach provides a threshold value for the sheet metal thickness at which the bending elongation is reduced significantly. Furthermore, the analytical approach emphasizes that surpassing the threshold value leads to a saturation of the bending elongation reduction and only marginal benefit is achieved by increasing the sheet metal thickness.
hybrid forging, bonding, joining, elastomechanics, lightweight, multi-material manufacturing
Components manufactured by hybrid forging in progressive dies have a high potential for lightweight construction. The example of a suspension arm shows the advantage of hybrid forged parts creating new possibilities for structural and material lightweight construction. Additionally, it is demonstrated that the heat subjected to hybrid forged parts during the subsequent hardening process does not threaten the potential of material lightweight construction.
progressive compound, hybrid, forging
The Collaborative Research Centre 1153 (CRC 1153) “Process chain for the production of hybrid high-performance components through tailored forming” aims to develop new process chains for the production of hybrid bulk components using joined semi-finished workpieces. The subproject B1 investigates the formability of hybrid parts using cross-wedge rolling. This study investigates the reduction of the coating thickness of coaxially arranged semi-finished hybrid parts through cross-wedge rolling. The investigated parts are made of two steels (1.0460 and 1.4718) via laser cladding with hot-wire. The rolling process is designed by finite element (FE)-simulations and later experimentally investigated. Research priorities include investigations of the difference in the coating thickness of the laser cladded 1.4718 before and after cross-wedge rolling depending on the wedge angle, cross-section reduction, and the forming speed. Also, the simulations and the experimental trials are compared to verify the possibility of predicting the thickness via finite element analysis (FEA). The main finding was the ability to describe the forming behavior of coaxially arranged hybrid parts at a cross-section reduction of 20% using FEA. For a cross-section reduction of 70% the results showed a larger deviation between simulation and experimental trials. The deviations were between 0.8% and 26.2%.
cross-wedge rolling, hybrid forming, FEA, coating thickness
Within the Collaborative Research Centre (CRC) 1153 “Tailored Forming “the manufacturing of hybrid bulk components is investigated. Therefore, a process chain consisting of joining, forming, milling and quality control has been established by multiple subprojects.Within subproject B1 of the CRC forming of hybrid parts by the incrementally forming cross-wedge rolling (CWR) process is investigated. The superior aim is to determine process limits and capabilities, when forming parts consisting of different materials joined by varying technologies.
In this paper, the investigation of cross-wedge rolling of serially arranged hybrid parts made of steel and aluminum is described. The focus of the research presented in this publication is the displacement of the joining zone of hybrid parts due to the cross-wedge rolling process. Therefore, finite element simulations have been developed, that allow the investigations of hybrid solid components. After simulation of various variations of the cross-wedge rolling process, i.e. differently shaped tools and forming velocities, experimental trials were carried out with identical parameter sets. A comparison of simulation and experiment, showed that the simulation model is capable of describing the cross-wedge rolling process of hybrid parts. The standard deviation of the displacement of the joining zone between simulation and experimental trials is 8.8% with regard to all investigated cases.
tailored forming, cross-wedge rolling, material forming, aluminum, steel
Within the Collaborative Research Centre 1153 “Tailored Forming“ a process chain for the manufacturing of hybrid high performance components is developed. Exemplary process steps consist of deposit welding of high performance steel on low-cost steel, pre-shaping by cross-wedge rolling and finishing by milling.
Hard material coatings such as Stellite 6 or Delcrome 253 are used as wear or corrosion protection coatings in industrial applications. Scientists of the Institute of Material Science welded these hard material alloys onto a base material, in this case C22.8, to create a hybrid workpiece. Scientists of the Institut für Integrierte Produktion Hannover have shown that these hybrid workpieces can be formed without defects (e.g. detachment of the coating) by cross-wedge rolling. After forming, the properties of the coatings are retained or in some cases even improved (e.g. the transition zone between base material and coating). By adjustments in the welding process, it was possible to apply the 100Cr6 rolling bearing steel, as of now declared as non-weldable, on the low-cost steel C22.8. 100Cr6 was formed afterwards in its hybrid bonding state with C22.8 by cross-wedge rolling, thus a component-integrated bearing seat was produced. Even after welding and forming, the rolling bearing steel coating could still be quench-hardened to a hardness of over 60 HRC. This paper shows the potential of forming hybrid billets to tailored parts. Since industrially available standard materials can be used for hard material coatings by this approach, even though they are not weldable by conventional methods, it is not necessary to use expensive, for welding designed materials to implement a hybrid component concept.
tailored forming, cross-wedge rolling, hard material coatings, PTA
